precocious, a.
(prɪˈkəʊʃəs)
[f. L. præcox, -cocem (precoce): see -ious.]
1. Of a plant: Flowering or fruiting early; spec. bearing blossom before the leaves; also said of the blossoms or fruit.
| 1650 Sir T. Browne Pseud. Ep. ii. vi. (ed. 2) 79 Many precocious trees, and such as have their spring in the winter, may be found in most parts of Europe. a 1682 ― Tracts (1684) 72 That there were precocious and early bearing Trees in Judæa, may be illustrated from some expressions in Scripture concerning precocious Figgs. 1872 Oliver Elem. Bot. ii. 234 A..tree, with..precocious hermaphrodite flowers. |
2. a. fig. Of persons: Prematurely developed in some faculty or proclivity.
| 1678 Cudworth Intell. Syst. i. iv. §21. 388 However it hath been of late so much decried..by..precocious and conceited wits also, as non-sence and impossibility. 1819 Byron Juan i. liv, To be precocious Was in her eyes a thing the most atrocious. 1829 Lytton Devereux, i. v, We were all three..precocious geniuses. 1868 E. Edwards Ralegh I. xv. 299 She was somewhat precocious in love matters. |
b. Of, pertaining to, or indicative of precocity or premature development.
| 1672 Sir T. Browne Let. Friend §28 'Tis superfluous to live unto gray Hairs, when in a precocious Temper we anticipate the Virtues of them. 1827 Macaulay Machiavelli Ess. (1887) 36 Untimely decrepitude was the penalty of precocious maturity. a 1863 Thackeray Christmas Bks. (1872) 19 His ‘Love Lays’..were pronounced to be wonderfully precocious for a young gentleman then only thirteen. |
c. Of things: Of early development.
| 1838 Dickens Nich. Nick. xx, Youthful misery stalks precocious. 1899 Allbutt's Syst. Med. VII. 668 ‘Specific’ phenomena are more commonly observed within a comparatively short time from the date of infection in which case they are not rightly regarded as ‘precocious’ symptoms. |
3. a. Zool. (See quot.) Contrasted with serotinous.
| 1900 Quekett Microsc. Club Jrnl. Ser. ii. VII. 260 All the social or colonial Radiolarians (Polycyttaria) and most of the Acantharia are precocious, for in them the nucleus divides early in the life history of the cell. |
b. = præcocial a.
| 1897 Parker & Haswell Text-bk. Zool. II. xiii. 382 The newly-hatched young may be..well covered with down and able to run or swim and to obtain their own food, in which case they are said to be precocious. 1970 R. A. & B. M. Maier Compar. Animal Behavior ix. 193 Domestic chicks are precocious (well developed at hatching). |