The awkward years
noun phrase

- The awkward years, also known as the awkward age, or the age of adolescence, is when one is no longer a child, but not quite an adult; a time when the hormones are said to be jumping. In today’s climate of politically correct speech, you may hear the awkward phrase “hormonally challenged.”

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ORIGIN

Awkward: Late Middle English (in the sense ‘the wrong way round, upside down’), from dialect awk ‘backwards, perverse, clumsy’ (from Old Norse afugr ‘turned the wrong way’) + -ward.

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A RATHER AWKWARD SITUATION

In 1898, Henry James wrote a novel with the title “The Awkward Age” about Nanda Brookenham, a young Englishwoman growing from puberty to maturity. The awkwardness was that she and her mother were both in love with the same young man.

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BTW, the “awkward squad” is a term used to describe young and untrained military recruits not yet ready to take their place in the ranks.

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SYNONYMS

anxious-making, bothersome, bumpy, contentious, cringeworthy, disconcerting, disquieting, embarrassing, exasperating, excruciating, fraught, full of problems, irritating, nettling, nettlesome, parlous, perturbing, strenuous, temperamental, troubling, unamusing, ungovernable, unpleasing, unsettled, worrisome, worrying

- nail-biting
- toe-curling
- blush-making
- nerve-wracking
- enough to drive you up the wall
- enough to try the patience of a saint

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Practice OWAD in an English conversation, say something like:

“Mum and Dad needed a lot of patience with me during my AWKWARD YEARS.”

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Paul Smith