Dictionary

hyperadult en · ADJ

Etymology

From hyper- + adult.

Meanings

1. Having excessively or inappropriately adult characteristics.
   • Her students - children living in a hyperadult world where playground disputes were settled with 9 mms - eventually drove her out of teaching. 2009, Christopher Moore, The Lust Lizard Of Melancholy Cove, →ISBN:
   • As matters now stand, "programs" too often result in the formation of individuals whose intelligence may be hyperadult, but whose affective and moral sensibility is childish. 1966, George F. McLean, Christian Philosophy in the College and Seminary, page 76:
   • I mean, most people get off on stuff that goes back to puberty or even earlier, and 'I'm so aroused' sounds so hyperadult. 2018, Lionel Shriver, The Standing Chandelier:
   • It was slow enough now that I could take a good look at her — I couldn't decide her age, but there seemed to be a youthfulness to her that belied her hyperadult authority. 1992, Martin Schecter, Two Halves of New Haven, page 157:
2. Exhibiting hypermorphosis; Having features that exaggerate adult morphology.
   • When sexual maturity is delayed development of the organism may continue over a longer time span. this extension of the growth phase facilitates the formation of a “hyperadult” morphology and a large size, a situation referred to as hypermorphosis. 1993, Charles Devillers, Jean Chaline, Evolution: An Evolving Theory, page 124:
   • Vrba continues by stating that this '. . . can result in a major reorganization - or "shuffling" of body proportions such that some characters become larger and others smaller, some hyperadult and others more juvenilized' (1996, p. 1 ). 1999, Barry Bogin, R. A. Foley, C. G. Nicholas Mascie-Taylor, Patterns of Human Growth, →ISBN, page 164:
   • This suggests a heterochronic event, such as a hypermorphosis (i.e., hyperadult size and shape, McNamara, 1986). 2003, Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology - Volume 23, Issues 3-4, page 552:

Forms