See Also: Precocious(medicine)
precocious(dictionary)
precocious(dictionary)
precocious puberty(medicine)
puberty, precocious(medicine)

precocious (iou)



precocious adjective. M17.
[from Latin praecoc-, praecox, from praecoquere boil beforehand, ripen fully, from prae PRE- + coquere to cook: see -IOUS.]
Botany. Flowering or fruiting early; spec. bearing blossom before the leaves. M17.
a. Of a person, esp. a child: prematurely developed in some faculty or proclivity. Often mildly derog. L17.
R. Church I was a precocious reader. J. I. M. Stewart My brother Ninian had been sexually precocious.
b. Of, pertaining to, or indicative of premature development; (of a thing) of early development. L17.
Ld Macaulay Untimely decrepitude was the penalty of precocious maturity. L. Grant-Adamson His precocious talent as an artist.
Zoology. = PRECOCIAL. L19.
precociously adverb M19.
precociousness noun L17.