Make Your Point: JUVENESCENT

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pronounce JUVENESCENT:

joo vuh NESS unt

connect this word to others:

Just like the word adolescent means "becoming adult," and like senescent means "becoming old," juvenescent means "becoming young."

That word juvenescent sounds so lovely to my ears. It's got that graceful suffix -escent, meaning "becoming, growing, or tending toward."

So do the graceful-sounding words below. Though it's purely a matter of taste, I've put them in order of increasing beauty, both in sound and meaning:

1. Something that tends to vanish is e___escent.

2. Something that tends to boil and bubble is ef____escent.

3. Something that tends to glow or burn with emotion is inc___escent.

4. Something that seems to shimmer in rainbow flecks against a milky white background is o___escent.

(To reveal any word with blanks, give it a click.)

definition:

Since the year 1800 or so, we've used the word "juvenescence"—from a Latin verb for "become more youthful"—to mean "a state of becoming youthful, a state of getting younger."

And the adjective is "juvenescent," which sometimes just means "young, youthful, immature" but also means "seeming to become more youthful, seeming to grow younger."

grammatical bits:

Part of speech:

Adjective: "a juvenescent woman;" "She's juvenescent."

Other forms:

The noun is "juvenescence."

There's a verb, "juvenesce," meaning "to become younger," but it's super-rare, not listed in most dictionaries.

how to use it:

"Juvenescent" is a rare word, but it's easy to understand, thanks to its resemblance to related words like "junior" and "juvenile."

Pick it when you want a formal, old-fashioned, attention-grabbing description for someone who seems especially youthful, even more youthful than when they were actually younger: someone full of joy, beauty, creativity, energy, and freedom of spirit. (And perhaps immaturity, recklessness, and ignorance.)

You might talk about a juvenescent person, personality, soul, or spirit; or about a juvenescent period of time; juvenescent voices or laughter; or juvenescent vigor or hope.

examples:

"The Open Theatre is not literary; it stresses the purely theatrical: sights and sounds, movement, acrobatics, a kind of juvenescent festiveness."
— Harold Clurman, The Collected Works of Harold Clurman, 1994

"The senility of the fellow's countenance, besides, was contradicted by the juvenescence of his eyes. No really old man could have had eyes like that."
— Richard Marsh, The Beetle, 1897

has this page helped you understand "juvenescent"?

Awesome, I'm glad it helped!

Thanks for letting me know!
If you have any questions about this term, please message me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com.

study it:

Explain the meaning of "juvenescent" without saying "childlike" or "growing young."

try it out:

Marie E. Zakrzewska, M.D. described working long hours as a child, side by side with her mother, as they tended to women giving birth. She summed up:

"The experience thus gained cost me the bloom of youth; yet I would not exchange it for a life of everlasting juvenescence."

Could you explain what she means? And is there a similar example from your own life: some experience that aged you, but was so valuable that you wouldn't trade it for juvenescence?

before you review, play:

Try to spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—first, let your working memory empty out.

Our game this month is "Literally That."

I’ll give you a gif and several synonyms that describe it, and you figure out which of these synonyms is most literally illustrated in the gif. You can check out some examples here.

Try this last one today:

(Source)

A. harebrained
B. preposterous
C. inconceivable

To see the answer, scroll all the way down.

review this word:

1. The exact opposite of JUVENESCENT is SENESCENT, meaning

A. becoming older.
B. going out of style.
C. shimmering like a rainbow.

2. Forbes describes Andrew Loog Oldham's "high-flown juvenescence," a time when, from the age of _____, he propelled the Rolling Stones into stardom.

A. 19 to 24
B. 49 to 54
C. 79 to 84

a final word:

I hope you're enjoying Make Your Point. It's made with love.

I'm Liesl Johnson, a reading and writing tutor on a mission to explore, illuminate, and celebrate words.

From my blog:
On vocabulary...
  36 ways to study words.
  Why we forget words, & how to remember them.
  How to use sophisticated words without being awkward.
On writing...
How to improve any sentence.
How to motivate our kids to write.
How to stop procrastinating and start writing.
How to bulk up your writing when you have to meet a word count.

From my heart: a profound thanks to the generous patrons, donors, and sponsors that make it possible for me to write these emails. If you'd like to be a patron or a donor, please click here. If you'd like to be a sponsor and include your ad in an issue, please contact me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com.

A disclaimer: When I write definitions, I use plain language and stick to the words' common, useful applications. If you're interested in authoritative and multiple definitions of words, I encourage you to check a dictionary. Also, because I'm American, I stick to American English when I share words' meanings, usage, and pronunciations; these elements sometimes vary across world Englishes.

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