adolescent

1. ad- "to" + ol- "al-, nourish" + -esc- (inchoative, 表始动词) + -ent.
2. => to be nourished, begin to nourish, begin to grow.
3. 由此引申为：青春期的，未成熟的，成长中的。

adolescent 青少年的

前缀ad-, 去，往。词根ol, 成长，同adult. -esce, 起始动词后缀，即成长中的。

adolescent

adolescent: [15] The original notion lying behind both adolescent and adult is of ‘nourishment’. The Latin verb alere meant ‘nourish’ (alimentary and alimony come from it, and it is related to old). A derivative of this, denoting the beginning of an action, was alēscere ‘be nourished’, hence ‘grow’. The addition of the prefix ad- produced adolēscere.

Its present participial stem, adolēscent- ‘growing’, passed into English as the noun adolescent ‘a youth’ (the adjective appears not to have occurred before the end of the 18th century). Its past participle, adultus ‘grown’, was adopted into English as adult in the 16th century.
=> adult, alimentary, alimony, coalesce, coalition, proletarian, prolific

adolescent (n.)

mid-15c., "youth, young man," from Middle French adolescent (15c.) or directly from Latin adolescentem (nominative adolescens) "growing, near maturity, youthful," present participle of adolescere "grow up, come to maturity, ripen," from ad- "to" (see ad-) + alescere "be nourished," hence, "increase, grow up," inchoative of alere "to nourish" (see old). Adolesce was a back-formed verb used early 20c. by H.G. Wells, G.B. Shaw, Louis MacNeice, but it seems not to have taken.

adolescent (adj.)

1785, from Latin adolescentem (nominative adolescens) "growing, near maturity, youthful," present participle of adolescere "grow up, come to maturity, ripen" (see adolescent (n.)).

1. Adolescent suicide is rarely an impulsive reaction to immediate distress.

青少年自杀很少是由于突然发生不幸而作出的冲动反应。

2. He spent his adolescent years playing guitar in the church band.

他在教堂的乐队里弹吉他，度过了他的青少年时期。

3. A little adolescent rebellion is commonly believed to be healthy.

大家一致认为，青少年有点叛逆是正常的。

4. Parents worry about the effect of music on their adolescent's behavior.

父母担心音乐对青春期孩子的行为所产生的影响。

5. Why give publicity to this self-indulgent, adolescent oaf?

为什么要宣传报道这个行为任性、青春期未满的白痴呢？

【adolescent, youthful, juvenile, young】
这组词都有“年轻的，年幼的”的意思，其区别是：
adolescent: 指13至16岁左右处于青春期的人，尚不成熟。
youthful: 褒义或贬义均可用。指具有青年人的外貌或年轻人应具有的品格。
juvenile: 较正式用词，一般12岁以下的少年，着重其生理和智力上的不成熟。
young: 强调年龄小，处于生长的前期。

【adolescent, teenager, youth, juvenile】
这组词都有“年轻人，青少年”的意思，其区别是：
adolescent: 比teenager正式，侧重年龄。
teenager: 主要指13岁到19岁之间的青少年，强调这个年龄段的人的本身特点。
youth: 现在几乎专指男青年，尤指10多岁到20多一点的男青年，但作为集合名时间男女青年都可指。
juvenile: 指青少年，系法律上的常用词。