immature

English

Etymology

From Middle French immature. Partially displaced unripe, from Old English unrīpe (“unripe, immature”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɪməˈtjʊə(ɹ)/, /ɪməˈt͡ʃʊə(ɹ)/, /ɪməˈt͡ʃə(ɹ)/

  • Audio (Southern England)

    (file)

• Rhymes: -ʊə(ɹ)

Adjective

immature (comparative immaturer, superlative immaturest)

1. (now rare) Occurring before the proper time; untimely, premature (especially of death). [from 16th c.]
   • 1748, [Samuel Richardson], “Letter CDLXXXI”, in Clarissa. Or, The History of a Young Lady: […], volumes (please specify |volume=I to VII), London: […] S[amuel] Richardson;  […], →OCLC:

     And thou also canst best account for the causes of her immature death […] .

2. Not fully formed or developed; not grown. [from 17th c.]
3. Childish in behavior; juvenile. [from 20th c.]

   You're only young once, but you can be immature the rest of your life.

   The man was immature for throwing a tantrum.

   • Wilhelm Stekel - As quoted in The Catcher in the Rye (1951) by J. D. Salinger.

     The mark of the immature man is that he wants to die nobly for a cause, while the mark of a mature man is that he wants to live humbly for one.

   Synonyms: infantile, milky; see also Thesaurus:childish

Translations

not fully formed

• Armenian: խակ (hy) (xak)
• Assamese: কুমলীয়া (kumolia), আপঁইতা (apõita)
• Azerbaijani: qeyri-kamil
• Bulgarian: незрял (bg) (nezrjal), недоразвит (bg) (nedorazvit)
• Catalan: immadur (ca)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 不成熟的 (bù chéngshú de)

• Finnish: epäkypsä (fi)
• French: immature (fr), (fruit) vert (fr)
• German: unreif (de)
• Greek: ανώριμος (el) (anórimos)
• Italian: immaturo (it), acerbo (it)
• Japanese: 未熟な (ja) (mijuku na)
• Korean: 미성숙하다 (miseongsuk-hada)
• Latin: immātūrus
• Macedonian: не́зрел (nézrel), недо́раснат (nedórasnat)
• Manx: anappee, neuappee
• Maori: kānewha, pangore, waitau, kōpīpī, kopī
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: umoden (no)

  Nynorsk: umoden, umogen

• Old English: unrīpe
• Polish: niedojrzały (pl) m
• Portuguese: imaturo (pt)
• Romanian: imatur (ro)
• Russian: неспе́лый (ru) (nespélyj), незре́лый (ru) (nezrélyj)
• Slovene: nezrel
• Spanish: inmaturo
• Swedish: omogen (sv)

childish

• Armenian: խակ (hy) (xak)
• Bulgarian: детински (bg) (detinski)
• Catalan: immadur (ca)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 嫩 (zh) (nèn), 不成熟的 (bù chéngshú de), 幼小 (zh) (yòuxiǎo), 幼稚 (zh) (yòuzhì)

• Czech: nedospělý, nezralý
• Danish: umoden, infantil
• Finnish: lapsellinen (fi)
• French: immature (fr)
• German: unreif (de), kindisch (de)
• Greek: ανώριμος (el) (anórimos), άπλερος (el) m (ápleros)
• Italian: immaturo (it), infantile (it)
• Japanese: 大人げない (おとなげない, otonagenai), 未熟 (ja) (みじゅく, mijuku)
• Korean: 유치하다 (ko) (yuchi-hada)
• Macedonian: де́тински (détinski), де́тинест (détinest)
• Maori: pangore
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: umoden (no)

  Nynorsk: umoden, umogen

• Old English: unrīpe
• Polish: niedojrzały (pl)
• Portuguese: imaturo (pt), infantil (pt)
• Romanian: imatur (ro)
• Russian: незре́лый (ru) (nezrélyj)
• Sassarese: zèivu
• Slovene: nezrel
• Spanish: inmaduro (es)
• Swedish: omogen (sv)
• Tamil: குழந்தைத்தனமான (kuḻantaittaṉamāṉa)

Noun

immature (plural immatures)

1. An immature member of a species.
   • 2001, DE Walter, H Proctor, RA Norton, Acarology: Proceedings of the 10th International Congress, →ISBN, page 51:

     There are many genera and even families of Brachypylina for which immatures are not yet known, and thus numerous examples of adult convergence and misclassification remain to be revealed: such is the case with Hypozetes.

   • 2005, Sean Dooley, The Big Twitch, Sydney: Allen and Unwin, page 240:

     While on a walk the next morning I found what looked like a patch of old growth habitat - perhaps somewhere the fires had missed - and to my astonishment saw a female Red-lored Whistler accompanied by an immature.

Related terms

• mature
• immaturity

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin immātūrus.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /i.ma.tyʁ/

Adjective

immature (plural immatures)

1. immature, unripe

References

• “immature”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

German

Pronunciation

• Audio

  (file)

Adjective

immature

1. inflection of immatur:
   1. strong/mixed nominative/accusative feminine singular
   2. strong nominative/accusative plural
   3. weak nominative all-gender singular
   4. weak accusative feminine/neuter singular

Italian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /im.maˈtu.re/
• Rhymes: -ure
• Hyphenation: im‧ma‧tù‧re

Adjective

immature

1. feminine plural of immaturo

Anagrams

• ammutire

Latin

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /im.maːˈtuː.re/, [ɪmːäːˈt̪uːrɛ]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /im.maˈtu.re/, [imːäˈt̪uːre]

Adjective

immātūre

1. vocative masculine singular of immātūrus

References

• “immature”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• immature in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.