Word of the Day

: March 13, 2015

nonage

noun NAH-nij

What It Means

1 : minority

2 a : a period of youth

b : lack of maturity

nonage in Context

"Enlightenment is man's emergence from his self-imposed nonage. … This nonage is self-imposed if its cause lies not in lack of understanding but in indecision and lack of courage to use one's own mind without another's guidance." - Immanuel Kant, "What is Enlightenment?" (1784), translated by Mary C. Smith

"[Adolf] Berle was an amazing person. He entered Harvard College in his nonage, being only fourteen years old." - Keith Paul Bishop, National Law Review, October 9, 2014

Did You Know?

Minority, majority; infancy, adulthood; nonage, full age-here you have the three contrasting pairs that constitute the vocabulary of legal age. Minority, infancy, and nonage are synonyms that mean "the state or time of being under legal age." Majority, adulthood, and full age mean "the state or time of being of legal age." (All these words, particularly infancy and adulthood, have other meanings as well, of course.) Nonage came to us by way of Middle English from an Anglo-French union of non- and age, which combine to mean "not of age."