adolescencyn.

a1398 J. Trevisa tr. Bartholomaeus Anglicus De Proprietatibus Rerum (BL Add. 27944) (1975) I. vi. i. 291 Adholoscencia..dureþ þe þridde seuen ȝere, þat is to þe ende of on and twenty ȝere... But Isidir seiþ þat it dureþ to þe ferþe seuen ȝere, þat is to þe ende of 28 ȝere. But ficicians strecchen þis age to þe ente of 30 ȝere or of 35 ȝere.]

?a1475 (?a1425) tr. R. Higden Polychron. (Harl. 2261) (1869) II. 371 (MED) The age of a man scholde be of a triplicate nature; the firste parte of whom, that is adolescency [L. adolescentia], is cruelle as a lyon.

a1492 W. Caxton tr. Vitas Patrum (1495) i. liv. f. cx^v/2 In his adolescencie he was Paynem.

c1503 R. Arnold Chron. f. lix^v/1 The iij. age is adholocencye & endurith vnto xxv. yere age.

1586 T. Bowes tr. P. de la Primaudaye French Acad. I. 564 The parts are these: Infancie, Childhood, Youth, Adolescencie, Virilitie, & old age.

1603 J. Florio tr. M. de Montaigne Ess. i. xxvii. 92 The first and beardlesse youth of his adolescencie.

1719 Free-thinker No. 138. 2 The Seasons of Puerility and Adolescency.

1797 Gentleman's Mag. Oct. 828/1 Being arrived to those years of discretion in which most other men of easy circumstances begin to think of retiring from business, he seemed only to have attained his adolescency.

1820 Gentleman's Mag. Oct. 325/1 It is at the age of adolescency that grace appears in woman—seldom afterwards.

1844 Hood's Mag. 2 65 Her family was reduced..to the two boys, Horatio and Cicero; and, of course, she believed them to be the very models of adolescency.

1945 P. H. Landis Adolescence & Youth iii. 33 One mother constantly remarked concerning her daughter's disregard of her authority, ‘Oh, she's just in adolescency,’ as though that settled the case.

1981 Times 7 Mar. 14/1 If not a second birth..it is a second adolescency, full of freedom, impertinence and hope.