infant

infant
   Occasionally used as a variant of child, baby, etc. It occurs twice in a friendly way in Absolute Beginners, by Colin MacInnes, used by a young man to a slightly younger male. There is a very similar usage in The Late Risers, by Bernard Wolfe, where ‘you goddamned infant’ occurs. Opening Night, by Ngaio Marsh, has: ‘Define, define, well educated infant,’ quoted by an actor to a policeman. The quotation is from Love’s Labour’s Lost, where Don Armado, the fantastical Spaniard, says this to his diminutive page, Moth. In Miss Marsh’s novel a man in his sixties also addresses a young girl as ‘my infant’, which causes another man present to refer to her almost immediately as ‘the Infant Phenomenon’. This is again a quotation, this time from Dickens and Nicholas Nickleby or The Pickwick Papers. In the latter novel Sam Weller addresses Master Bardell as ‘my infant fernomenon’. Friendly use of ‘infant’ by a sister to her brother occurs in The Taste of Too Much, by Clifford Hanley. In The Battle of the Villa Fiorita, by Rumer Godden, it is a young English boy who calls his younger sister ‘my poor infant’. Monica Dickens, in Thursday Afternoons, has a mother calling her adolescent daughter ‘infant’.

A dictionary of epithets and terms of address . . 2015.

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  • Infant — est un mot issu du latin infans, qui signifie bébé, jeune enfant. Les enfants des familles royales des Espagnes étaient appelés infants de leurs pays, tout comme les princes de sang royal français étaient appelés les enfants de France. En… …   Wikipédia en Français

  • infant — infant, ante [ ɛ̃fɑ̃, ɑ̃t ] n. • 1407; esp. infante; lat. infans ♦ Titre donné aux enfants puînés des rois d Espagne et de Portugal. L infant d Espagne. Le personnage de l infante dans « le Cid ». « Pavane pour une infante défunte », œuvre de… …   Encyclopédie Universelle

  • infant — in·fant / in fənt/ n: a person who is not of the age of majority: minor compare adult Merriam Webster’s Dictionary of Law. Merriam Webster. 1996 …   Law dictionary

  • Infant — In fant, n. [L. infans; pref. in not + fari to speak: cf. F. enfant, whence OE. enfaunt. See {Fame}, and cf. {Infante}, {Infanta}.] 1. A child in the first period of life, beginning at his birth; a young babe; sometimes, a child several years of… …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • Infant — In fant, a. 1. Of or pertaining to infancy, or the first period of life; tender; not mature; as, infant strength. [1913 Webster] 2. Intended for young children; as, an infant school. [1913 Webster] …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • infant — infant, ante (in fan, fan t ) s. m. et f. 1°   Titre qu on donne aux enfants puînés des rois d Espagne et de Portugal.    Infant s est dit aussi dans quelques grandes familles espagnoles. •   Mudarra Dont ses [de don Rodrigue] complots… …   Dictionnaire de la Langue Française d'Émile Littré

  • infant — [n] baby babe, bairn, bambino, bantling, bundle, child, kid, little one, neonate, newborn, small child, suckling, toddler, tot; concepts 414,424 Ant. adult infant / infantile [adj] very young baby, babyish, callow, childish, childlike, dawning,… …   New thesaurus

  • infant — Infant, [inf]ante. substantif. Titre qu on donne aux enfans puisnez des Rois d Espagne & des Rois de Portugal. Le Cardinal Infant. l Infante Claire Eugenie …   Dictionnaire de l'Académie française

  • Infant — In fant, v. t. [Cf. F. enfanter.] To bear or bring forth, as a child; hence, to produce, in general. [Obs.] [1913 Webster] This worthy motto, No bishop, no king, is . . . infanted out of the same fears. Milton. [1913 Webster] …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • Infánt — (span. infante; v. lat. infans, »Kind«), in Spanien und Portugal Titel der Prinzen und Prinzessinnen (infanta, Infantin) der königlichen Familie; der Kronprinz heißt in Spanien seit 1388 Prinz von Asturien, während er in Portugal bis zur… …   Meyers Großes Konversations-Lexikon

  • Infánt — (span. infante; vom lat. infans, d.i. Kind) und Infantin (span. infanta), in Spanien und Portugal Titel der Prinzen und Prinzessinnen des königl. Hauses …   Kleines Konversations-Lexikon

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