Just some thoughts that I wanted to put out there - debate at will...
This is a topic of a recent family discussion with D's family...When you hear/use the word "precocious" what connotation comes to mind - do you hear it used in a negative sense or in a positive one? I would take it as a compliment if someone described the boys as precocious - before looking up the official definition, I think that our cultural meaning (at least from my perspective) is clever, advanced for one's age, witty beyond your years, and I think of the word as being used to describe children...and especially in the way that they interact with adults. Like a young girl that might carry on a conversation with an adult and just have a clever answer for everything the adult asks/says....
When I use Word's Thesaurus the words Intelligent, Bright, Gifted come up...
I believe the precicious is the root of the word precocial which is a biological term to describe a species that is advanced from birth (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Precocial)
The Etymology: Latin - prae- + coquere 'to cook'
Dictionary.com defines precocious as
pre·co·cious [pri-koh-shuhs] –adjective
1. unusually advanced or mature in development, esp. mental development: a precocious child.
What do you think? Do you think that it has any negative connotations - similar to mischievious? Please share thoughts!
2 comments:
I think it's usually positive connotation.
You know my vote - if I was described as that as a child, then it has to be negative!!
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