How old is a youngster?

[panzerfaust0]

Hello. I know this sounds a bit strange however I wish to find out the age range for a "youngster". Does a 14-year old count as a "youngster"? It seems a bit too old to me. Babies and toddlers can't be "youngsters" either, right? They are too young. So I want to find out what age groups are covered under the "youngster" group.

Context: parents bring their youngsters to the park to play.

Thanks.

 

[SuK]

Youngster has no defined age range unfortunately as it means the same thing as child or young person. Clearly in the sentence quoted, youngster has the meaning of child.

The term can also be used for older teens or other adults when used in context by an older person. For example, "The old man complained about 'those darn youngsters making so much noise'. I've even heard it used pejoratively for people in their twenties.

 

[theartichoke]

Hi there,

It all depends on context. In the context of your sentence, I would think of any child young enough to be brought by a parent to a park to play: say, from toddlers (who can certainly be "youngsters") to maybe eight or nine. But "youngsters" is also often used jocularly by people to refer to anyone younger than them: a 30-year-old could refer to her newly-hired 22-year old co-workers as "youngsters"; an 80-year-old could refer to a 60-year-old as a "youngster."

If you were to say to me "Michael is a youngster" with no further context, I would have no idea whether Michael was a child of six or a person a few years younger than yourself.