puerilization

English

Etymology

puerile +‎ -ization

Noun

puerilization (uncountable)

1. (rare) The act or process of acquiring puerile characteristics.
   • 1906, “Editor's Easy Chair”, in Harper's New Monthly Magazine, volume 113, number 678:

     We have sometimes fancied that the modern noises are the utterances of that rejuvenescence, another name for recrudescence, which has overtaken the race. It seems to be turning boy and girl again in that puerilization following its devotion to manly sports, as they are called.

   • 2003, F. LeRon Shults, Reforming Theological Anthropology: After the Philosophical Turn to Relationality, page 68:

     British religious educator John Hull warns churches of the dangers of maintaining the puerilization of their members (keeping them childish in their thinking).

   • 2017, Alain Badiou, The True Life:

     and this in turn leads to what could be called (it's the same thing, but the other way around) a puerilization of adults. An infantilization. Young people can remain young indefinitely because there is no specific demarcation, which means that adulthood is both continually and partially an extension of childhood.

See also

• rejuvenescence