teenager

n.

A person between the ages of 13 and 19; an adolescent.

noun

A young person, usually between the ages of 13 and 19: adolescent, teen, youth. Informal teener. See youth/age/maturity.

Origin: 1938

In the first part of the twentieth century, we made a startling discovery. There were teenagers among us! Until then, we had thought of people in just two stages: children and adults. And while childhood might have its tender moments, the goal of the child was to grow up as promptly as possible in order to enjoy the opportunities and shoulder the responsibilities of an adult. The girl became the woman, the boy became the man. It was as simple and significant as that.

Or was it? The reforms of the early twentieth century, preventing child labor and mandating education through high school, lengthened the pre-adult years. In earlier times, a person reaching adult size at age thirteen or fourteen was ready to do adult work. Now adult size was achieved as soon as ever, but preparation for adult responsibilities lasted until age eighteen or later. Thus the years ending in -teen became something new and distinctive. Depending on your point of view, these years were either to be savored as the best of times, combining childhood freedom with adult physical maturity, or endured as years of hazard, combining childish irresponsibility with adult urges.

To match our gradual recognition of this new phenomenon, we adopted new terminology. First, in the 1920s, we began to use teenage to speak of clothes and activities, girls and boys, in the latter cases recognizing the teen years but still assigning them to childhood. About two decades later, against the backdrop of depression and war, teenager was born. The exact date has yet to be determined; the word makes a matter-of-fact appearance in a 1941 issue of Reader's Digest, but being derived from long-established teenage, it must have been around at least a few years earlier.

The teenager remade our world. The concept is profoundly democratic by right of chronology: every child, regardless of wealth or merit, can look forward to an age of vigor and independence. And it is subversive: why should any teenager enjoying freedom submit to the authority of adults? With the discovery of this new age, ours has been the century of the teenager ever since.

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• Simple Life of YP The blog that describes the ups and downs of a teenager.

Dansk (Danish)
n. - ung person i alderen 13-19 år

Nederlands (Dutch)
tiener, bakvis

Français (French)
n. - adolescent, jeune

Deutsch (German)
n. - Teenager, Jugendlicher

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - έφηβος

Italiano (Italian)
adolescente

Português (Portuguese)
n. - adolescente (m) (f) (entre 13 e 19 anos de idade)

Русский (Russian)
подросток, находящийся в возрасте от 13 до 19 лет

Español (Spanish)
n. - adolescente, joven, quinceañera, calcetinera

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - tonåring

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
十几岁的青少年

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 十幾歲的青少年

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 10대의 소년, 10대의 소녀

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 10代の少年

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) شخص في دور المراهقه, المراهق‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮בגיל העשרה, נער, נערה‬

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gift for teenager	teenager gifts