This caught my attention, especially because in Spanish you would call something young “juvenil,” which comes from joven, meaning “young.” I initially assumed it was a direct translation, until I learned that in English “juvenile” usually refers to someone under 18 (basically a teenager or younger), whereas juvenil in Spanish can describe anyone (or anything) young, regardless of age.
Does a term like that exist in English? Basically, a term to describe the entirety of the young population.
A "youth" or "youths" is probably the closest equivalent. Can also say "the youth" to describe them as a group.
Thanks for putting this here so I didn’t have to 🤣
Only thing I have to add is that I wouldn't generally call a young child a youth. I'd only really call an adolescent or young adult one.
And I'd personally see it as disparaging. "Those two youths over there" to me has the connotation that they're miscreants.
Though I'd say "the youth" as an abstract collective noun is more general and neutral.
Yup. To me, the noun "youth" as referring to a person carries the connotation of "a young person who causes trouble or who is in trouble".
To be fair, there are many youth organizations, sometimes aimed at children, sometimes teenagers, sometimes teenagers and young adults.
That makes sense! Thank you.
Yeah thats all I could think of too
That's because juvenile is an adjetive and a noun. When it is an adjective (describing something) the translation can be "juvenil".
Check the RAE (the academy that decides what's acceptable in Spanish): https://dle.rae.es/juvenil
"Juvenil" in Spanish is only an adjective.
When you use "juvenile" as a noun, "This velociraptor is a juvenile," then you will have to tranlsate using another word in Spanish like "Este velociraptor es una cría".
But joven is a noun. Why not "Este velociraptor es un joven".
Yes, it's also possible, but I wanted to make the difference clear. "Juvenil" and "Joven" aren't synonyms in Spanish, and I didn't want to risk OP fall into believing that.
That’s really a Spanish question not English, but briefly: you could say animal joven, using joven adjectivally, but generally joven as a noun is only used for human beings. Este velociraptor es joven is fine. (Disclaimer: not a native Spanish speaker, but fluent.)
"Young" is probably the word you're looking for. Someone can be "young" while being in their 20s (or 30s, or 40s even). You can call someone young at almost any age because it's used as a relative term. For example, if someone dies at the age of 45, you might say it was a young age to die at.
ETA: There's also "youth" if you're looking for a general term for the younger people in a population as a group. That can refer to children through young adults. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Youth
I'd caution against thinking Juvenile comes from joven.
Both words come from the Latin Iuventus (sometimes written juventus). They don't generally have to have the same path from then on. Think embarrassed and embarazada or sensible.
Edit: also I don't associate Juvenile with a specific age range, I associate it with behaviours of low maturity. There's no English word that captures all age ranged effectively I'd say, you have to be specific and say toddler, child, adolescent, young adult. Someone suggested youth but I'd argue that only really covers part of adolescence and young adulthood.
Came here to say this exact thing about the etymology. I don't know much about Spanish but what you say sounds spot on. Minor nitpick: it's iuvenis meaning young man, not iuventis: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/iuvenis#Latin
Iuventus (youth) is definitely a Latin word, though you're right in that it's less root than iuvenis. +Tūs/tūtis is a common way of forming abstract nouns in Latin, such as vir (man) + tūs = virtūs (virtue, manliness).
I think OP's misunderstanding is that joven in Spanish is used as a respectful thing to say in semiformal settings. I get called joven quite a lot by Mexican salespeople and people providing services. It's a respectful way of referring to someone younger than you.
In English this connotation doesn't really exist. Apart from sterile, academic contexts, describing someone as "young" or "a youth" or "young man" is a little condescending at best and downright disparaging at worst.
Words for young people:
Newborn (less than 6 months) -> Baby/Infant (0-3) -> Toddler (1-3) -> Child (0-12) -> Adolescent/Teen(ager) (12-18) -> Young adult (18-25)
Minor: Anyone under 18 (strict)
Youth: Anyone under 21 (loose)
Juvenile: (typically used as an adjective)
That's all I can think of at the moment.
A juvenile offender is a person convicted of a crime while still a minor, that is, under the age of 18.
Cop types often will use “juvenile” to mean specifically that. The word “juvenile” is not often used as a noun except in this particular legal/cop jargon.
Or for immature animals, particularly birds.
Yes, for immature, non-human animals. It's like using "male" or "female" as a noun - it just sounds like what a cop says about a suspect, or perhaps super clinical, like what you'd say about a group of people in a medical trial.
youth; 'juvenile' can also refer to (being characterised by) childish or immature behaviour (so perhaps there's a bit of overlap there)