nonage

noun

non·​age ˈnä-nij  ˈnō- 

1

: minority sense 4

2

a

: a period of youth

b

: lack of maturity

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.

Synonyms

• childhood
• springtime
• youth

Examples of nonage in a Sentence

the short stories of the novelist's nonage have only recently been discovered by scholars

the indiscretions of his long-ago nonage have come back to haunt him now that he's a serious presidential contender

Word History

Etymology

Middle English, from Anglo-French, from non- + age age

First Known Use

15th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

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