Youngster

Now chiefly colloq. Forms: see YOUNG; also 6–7 yonckster, ounster. [f. YOUNG a. + -STER, suggested by YOUNKER.]

  1.  A young person, esp. a young man, and, formerly, a lively or vigorous young fellow; † a novice. Now only as extension of sense 3 with connotation of inexperience or immaturity.

1589.  Greene, Menaphon (Arb.), 23. Menaphon,… a man … loued of the Nymphes, as the paragon of all their countrey youngsters.

1594.  Nashe, Unfort. Trav., Wks. (Grosart), V. 158. I am halfe in a iealozie hee is some fantasticall amorous yonckster, who to dishonor me hath hyr’d you to this stratagem.

1642.  H. More, Song of Soul, I. II. xxxviii. A youngster gent, With bever cockt.

1670.  Eachard, Cont. Clergy, 18. I cannot foresee any other Remedy, but that most of those University Youngsters must fall to the Parish.

1706.  Phillips (ed. Kersey), Youngster, an airy, brisk young Man; a raw or unexperienced Youth, a Novice.

1798.  Lit. Mem. Living Authors, I. 116. This … is adapted to youngsters rather than the higher classes of readers.

1824.  Miss Mitford, Village, Ser. I. Hannah. John Wilson has no rival,… for the Robert Ellis, whom certain youngsters would fain exalt to a co-partnery of fame, is simply nobody.

1825.  Brockett, N. C. Gloss., Youngster, a novitiate in any thing.

1866.  Oxenden, Our Church, ii. 15. If, for instance, we wanted a Counsellor, we should not consult a mere youngster.

  attrib.  1623.  Lisle, Ælfric on O. & N. Test., 36. They called straight vnto him their yongster captain.

  2.  Familiarly applied to a boy or junior seaman on board ship (cf. YOUNKER 2 b); also to a junior officer in the army or navy.

1608.  Relat. Trav. W. Bush, B 4 b. At length a nimble yonckster gets him to the very top of the foremast.

1802.  C. James, Milit. Dict., Youngsters, a familiar term to signify the junior officers of a troop or company. The word youngster is like-used in the navy.

1850.  Hannay, Sing. Font., V. v. The shrill, squeaking voices of ‘youngsters’ in the tops.

1857.  Chamb. Jrnl., 9 May, 290/2. Nowhere was the excitement more intense than in the midshipmen’s berth, and on no one had the intelligence a more surprising effect than on Bobstay, our junior youngster.

  3.  A young person who is not of age; a child, esp. a boy. colloq.

1732.  Berkeley, Alciphr., VII. § 20. Appetite … which is elder Brother to Reason,… is sure … to take the advantage of drawing all to his own side: And Will … is but at best a Football or Top between those Youngsters who prove very unfortunately matched.

1788.  Cowper, Pity for Poor Afr., 21. A youngster at school, more sedate than the rest.

1852.  Mrs. Stowe, Uncle Tom’s C., iv. ‘Now for the cake,’ said Mas’r George…; and with that the youngster flourished a large knife over the article in question.

1886.  Spurgeon, Treas. Dav., Ps. cxxviii. 3. The wife is busy all over the house, but the youngsters are busiest at meal-times.

  4.  A young animal.

1849.  W. S. Mayo, Kaloolah, xxxvii. (1851), 341. A youngster of a crocodile who had come out of the water.

1854.  Poultry Chron., I. 598. All the chickens hatched Prior to the 22nd of May, dwindled away one by one, and scarcely left a single youngster from any clutches.

1873.  Baily’s Mag., Nov., 193. The rest of the youngsters [sc. young racehorses] … had gone away for change of air to Newmarket.

1919.  Vachel Lindsay, The Modest Jazz-bird, 5, in Poetry, XIV. No. 5. Aug.