"Adult children" comes from "adult children of alcoholics", but now has broader reference to adults who were abused emotionally, physically or sexually in childhood.
16 The word adult appear to have derived from the Latin term adultus, meaning grown up, mature, adult, ripe. Adulterate (and its cognate adultery) is reported to derive from the Latin adulterare - to falsify, corrupt. Are the meanings and derivation of adult and adulterate, directly related, or is this just a coincidence of spelling?
The best way to do it, I think, would be to forgo the hyphens completely and go with: I am a psychologist who works with children and adults. Anything else is awkward, ambiguous, or both. If it's necessary to emphasize that this individual works with children and adults (i.e., this isn't just introductory information), you could add in a 'both': I am a psychologist who works with both children ...
"adult children" is sometimes used in contexts where age is important, such as a form requiring someone to list all children under 18 and all adult children living with them. And someone might use it to emphasise that their children have left home or aren't dependent on them. But you wouldn't introduce someone as "my adult child/ren".
There is a specific term, and it keeps evading me, that refers to an adult who still embraces child-like wonder, curiosity, etc.... Not inferring a child-like or infantile adult, i.e. someone with a
terminology - synonym for child-like [adult] - English Language & Usage ...
I'm looking for a word that is similar to anthropomorphize but that means projecting adult characteristics onto children. I have a pre-verbal child and it is very easy to make up reasons for her be...