junior, a. and n.
(ˈdʒuːnɪə(r))
[a. L. jūnior (for juvenior), compar. of juvenis young.]
A. adj.
1. The younger: used after a person's name († or title) to denote the younger of two bearing the same name in a family, esp. a son of the same name as his father; also (after a simple surname) the younger of two boys of the same surname in a school. Abbreviated jun., junr., or jr.
| [1409 Durham Acc. Roll in Eng. Hist. Rev. XIV. 528 Per manus Johannis Falderle Junioris.] 1623 in Cockeram. 1691 Lond. Gaz. No. 2669/4 Lost, a Note of Mr. Tho. Symonds junior's Hand for Mr. Tho. Symonds senior,..for 50l. 1698 Fryer Acc. E. India & P. Table 19 King of Bantam, Junior, espouses the Dutch Interest. 1708 Lond. Gaz. No. 4475/4 Tho. Crabb, Sen. and Tho. Crabb, Jun. of Malborrow..Wooll-men. 1838 Dickens Nich. Nick. v, Snawley junior, if you don't leave off..shaking with the cold, I'll warm you with a severe thrashing. 1851 Illustr. Catal. Gt. Exhib. 259 The whole..are from the designs of James Rock, jun. |
2. Of less standing or more recent appointment; of lower position, in a class, rank, profession, etc.
In American colleges and schools. Belonging to the third year of the course, next below the
senior or last year, or to the first or second year of a three-year course, or the first of a two-year course.
| 1766 in B. Peirce Hist. Harvard (1833) 246 That the Senior Sophisters shall attend the Tutor A on Mondays...That the Junior Sophisters shall attend B on Mondays. 1810 Naval Chron. XXIV. 41 His Majesty's ship Pompée (junior flag-ship). 1849 Macaulay Hist. Eng. iii. I. 309 The lord treasurer..had eight thousand a year, and..the junior lords had sixteen hundred a year each. 1870 M. Bridgman R. Lynne I. ii. 12 From junior clerk, he worked his way up. 1871 M. Collins Mrq. & Merch. I. ii. 56 The chief of the firm went on what is called the ‘junior partner’ principle. His clerks became in time his partners. |
3. † a. Belonging to youth or earlier life; youthful, juvenile.
Obs.| 1606 Sylvester Du Bartas ii. iv. i. Trophies 485 So shall his owne Ambitious Courage bring For Crown a Coffin to our Iunior King. 1643 Sir T. Browne Relig. Med. ii. §8 Our first studies and junior endeavours may style us Peripateticks, Stoicks, or Academicks. 1706 Wooden World Diss. (1708) 37 One that in his Junior Days was brought up in the Fear of the Lord. |
b. Designating something intended for children or young people; also applied to a product, device, etc., that is smaller than the normal size.
| 1860 (title) The junior atlas, for schools; fourteen maps selected from the college atlas. 1884 Chambers's Hist. Readers (title) Junior English history. 1941 Tennessean (Nashville) 12 Aug. 9 (Advt.), Handyhot junior electric washer. 1948 (title) Oxford junior encyclopaedia. 1948 Tennessean Mag. (Nashville) 7 Nov. 23 The idea that ‘Junior is a size, not an age’, has been plugged with rather half-hearted vigor for several years..in clothes in the 9 to 17 size range. 1967 L. B. Archer in Wills & Yearsley Handbk. Managem. Technol. 125 It will be an important design consideration to know whether the product is to be presented as one of a family of different products..and/or one of a family of similar products (standard, de luxe, junior, and portable models?). 1967 M. Drabble Jerusalem the Golden vii. 172 She had been in the afternoon to the chemist's to buy some Junior Aspirin. 1972 Practical Motorist Oct. 212/1 A full-size hacksaw won't fit into the average tool box, nor will it work in tight corners. A ‘junior’ frame saw is a useful back-up, since it's small enough to travel with any tool kit. |
4. Of later rise or appearance in history, of later date; more modern. Now rarely said of persons.
| 1621 Burton Anat. Mel. ii. iv. ii. ii, [Hellebor] is still oppugned..by Crato and some junior physitians. 1678 Cudworth Intell. Syst. Pref. 34 There is yet a Fourth Atheistick Form taken notice of..though perhaps Junior to the rest, it seeming to be but the Corruption and Degeneration of Stoicism. 1699 Bentley Phal. 85 Archestratus the Syracusian was junior to Plato. Mod. The Cretan civilization was apparently junior to that of the Nile valley. |
5. Special collocations:
junior college (in
U.S.), ‘a college, operating as a separate institution or as part of a standard college, which does not offer courses more advanced than those of the sophomore year’ (
D.A.E.); also, a similar institution in Britain and elsewhere;
junior high (school) (
N. Amer.), a school intermediate between elementary school and high school;
junior miss (
orig. U.S.), a young teen-aged girl;
= miss n.2 4; also
attrib.;
junior school, (
a) in the state educational system, a school for children aged roughly between 7 and 11; a primary school; (
b) the lower forms of some fee-paying schools;
junior service, the Army;
junior stock (see
quot. 1914);
junior technical school, a school providing a technical and secondary education for boys.
| 1899 Univ. Chicago Reg. 1898–99 37/1 The Faculties of the Schools of Arts, Literature, and Science have been organized as follows; (1) The Faculty of the *Junior Colleges; [etc.]. 1949 Manch. Guardian Weekly 7 Apr. 8 You will not learn what are the ambitions of the students at a junior college. 1957 Encycl. Brit. XX. 258/1 Some schools extended secondary education upward by offering two years of additional work of ‘junior college’ type. 1963 Higher Educ.: Rep. Comm. under Ld. Robbins 1961–3 148 in Parl. Papers 1962–3 (Cmnd. 2154) XI. 639 Other witnesses..advocated the creation of separate junior or preparatory colleges to undertake the later stages of sixth form work and the first year of university work. 1971 English Studies LII. 569 The action..takes place in a classroom of a Southern Californian junior college. |
| 1909 Ann. Rep. Bd. Educ. (Columbus, Ohio) 168 The Board has declared itself in favour of the *Junior High School System. 1929 Encycl. Brit. XX. 258/1 The junior high school has also been a vehicle for innovations in teaching methods. 1948 Daily Ardmoreite (Ardmore, Okla.) 12 Oct. 10/1 They met in the ninth grade in junior high. 1968 Globe & Mail (Toronto) 13 Feb. 30/2 (Advt.), Convenient to public, junior high and separate schools. Ibid. 33/6 (Advt.), Experienced Junior High, social studies and science teacher required. |
| 1927 Vogue 15 Jan. 106/2 *Junior Misses' Frock. 1950 M. Allingham Take Two at Bedtime 17, I was still wearing the junior-miss dresses I had had at school. 1965 Harper's Bazaar May 75 Both dresses {pstlg}1 19s. 11d. by Marks & Spencer Junior Miss. |
| 1871 Minutes of School Board for London I. 156 Public elementary day schools are conveniently classfied into infant schools, for children below seven years of age; *junior schools, for children between seven and ten years of age; and senior schools, for older children. 1902 Captain VII. 221/1 Workington passed out of the Junior school. 1971 Times Educ. Suppl. 5 Feb. 41/4 (Advt.), Small groups of immigrant pupils in Junior Schools, who need additional language instruction. |
| 1915 E. Wallace Man who bought London viii. 81 She had a son in the army, and she bore the *junior service a grudge in consequence. |
| 1914 H. Halford Dict. Stock Market Terms 50 *Junior stocks, ordinary and deferred stocks ranking for dividend after debentures and preference stocks. 1932 Daily Tel. 8 Oct. 2/4 The current quotations of the junior stocks remove the likelihood of an issue in that form. |
| 1929 Encycl. Brit. VII. 988/2 Its lower grades have shown a considerable increase, whether in *junior technical schools, art schools or evening classes. 1931 Education Outlook June 183/1 Its pupils [sc. of the new senior school] are distinguished from their contemporaries in grammar schools, modern schools, and junior technical schools. |
B. n. 1. a. (the
adj. used
absol.) A person who is younger than another, or of more recent entrance or lower standing in a class, profession, etc.: see A. More generally (chiefly
U.S.), a child,
esp. a young boy:
freq. with capital initial.
| 1526 Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 206 Of bysshops, doctours of the lawe & lerned men, of senyours and iunyours, of iewes and gentyles. 1678 Cudworth Intell. Syst. i. i. §37. 45 Our Continual Creation of new Souls, by means whereof they become Juniours both to the matter of the World and of their own Bodies. 1722 Lond. Gaz. No. 6102/4 The Juniors went first. 1797 Mrs. Radcliffe Italian xx, He was pointed out by the fathers of the convent to the juniors as a great example. 1820 Byron Mar. Fal. i. ii. 34 At least in some, the juniors of the number. 1888 Bryce Amer. Commw. III. vi. cii. 453 In an American college the students are classed by years, those of the first year being called freshmen, of the second year sophomores, of the third year juniors. 1946 Sun (Baltimore) 14 Dec., Lest the joy of Christmas be marred by..Junior's nipping his pal's arm with an arrow from his archery set, [etc.]. 1951 O. Nash Family Reunion 31 But you take ingenuous Junior, and it's just a radio to him. 1968 Globe & Mail (Toronto) 13 Jan. 25/6 (Advt.), Enclosed is cheque..for..adults..and..juniors. 1970 G. Greer Female Eunuch 230 If junior finds out that his parents are going out, he'll scream. |
b. Preceded by possessive;
cf. better,
elder,
inferior,
superior.
| 1548 Udall Erasm. Par. Luke xiv. 7 Doctours in any vniuersitie..Not one of them but he thynketh hymself to haue had a great iniurie doen vnto hym yf he go on the left hand of an other that semeth to be his iuniour or inferiour. 1676 Prideaux Lett. (Camden) 55 Christ Church is now altogether becom a stranger to you, we beeing al almost your juniors. 1699 Bentley Phal. 413 Persons of Age and Authority spoke kindly to their Juniors. 1797 Jefferson Writ. (1859) IV. 155, I am his junior in life, I was his junior in Congress, his junior in the diplomatic line, and lately his junior in our civil government. 1818 Byron Mazeppa iv, His wife was not of his opinion; His junior she by thirty years. |
c. Comb., as
junior-right, Borough-English.
| 1882 C. Elton Orig. Eng. Hist. viii. 185 Junior-right..has flourished not only in England..but also in some remote and disconnected regions. Ibid., We have a choice between ‘ultimogeniture’..or one must coin a new phrase, like juniority or junior-right. |
2. A barrister who has not taken silk; a junior barrister.
| 1837 Dickens Pickw. xxxiv, Mr. Serjeant Buzfuz..leads on the other side. That gentleman behind him is Mr. Skimpin, his junior. 1842 Dickens Amer. Notes I. iii. 127 The counsel who interrogated the witness..was alone and had no ‘junior’. 1872 G. H. Lewes Let. 5 Jan. in Geo. Eliot Lett. (1956) V. 234 We had..Bowen (the junior in the Tichborne case on whom Coleridge mainly relies),..and had..lots of fun. 1958 S. Hyland Who goes Hang? xlix. 260 Oliver Passmore K.C., M.P. And there was a ‘junior’ with him called Mortimer. 1972 ‘W. Haggard’ Protectors iii. 26 This barrister was..a strong Junior at the criminal bar, and he'd defended Martiny's friend. |
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junior kindergarten n. N. Amer. Educ. (now chiefly
Canad.) an introductory level of kindergarten, now usually the first of two kindergarten grades (
cf. senior kindergarten n. at
senior adj. and
n. Additions).
| 1901 Los Angeles Times 2 June iii. 3/3 The *junior kindergarten class of the State Normal School..was entertained by Miss Hagan. 1948 Winnipeg Free Press 10 Mar. 1/1 The lack of junior kindergarten facilities in Winnipeg. 2005 Today's Parent (Electronic ed.) Sept. 147 They went to a preschool at age three, junior kindergarten at age four and entered French immersion senior kindergarten (at a different school). |