When Was the Term “Adolescence” or “Teenager” First Coined?
Question by : When was the term “Adolescence” or “Teenager” first coined?
Children used to mean up to the age of 21 cause you became an adult at the age of 21 “age of majority” in the beggining of the 20th century thats why after prohibition they put the drinking age in most states at 21.When did people start calling you a teenager or a teen and did it mean the same thing!Did it mean up to 19 what was a 20 year old was he called a child since he was under 21?
Best answer:
Answer by Stella
I believe it was coined in the 50’s,when the demographic started to become recognized. Previous to that era, young people were considered to be more or less “trainee adults”, and in fact were often out working at an early age of 14-15. After the Second World War, when very young men had been slaughtered for political aims, returning soldiers who had witnessed these horrors came home with many changed opinions about life. One of these changes, was the feeling that young people should be sheltered from the more rigorous effects of adulthood. The idea of the “teenager” was probably born out of these altered ideals.
I don’t believe it came out of any connection with drinking alcohol. The term wasn’t connected with prohibition.
PS the word “adolescence” has been around forever, it comes from the Latin word ‘adolescere” meaning “to grow into adulthood”.
Answer by Flower
I think in the 1970s the age of consent came down to 18. I should be raised again. To solve social problems but also since they don’t use the power of their vote anyway and thats what it was lowered for, during Viet Nam. I think the term teen-ager started in the 1950s, before that it was bobby soxer and junior miss for girls and there was bright young thing in the 1930s. Adolescent was around longer than that but at the turn of the 20th century. they married younger so there was probably no transition from childhood to adulthood.