PUBERTY

noun Etymology: Middle English puberte, from Latin pubertas, from puber pubescent Date: 14th century the condition of being or the period of becoming first capable of reproducing sexually marked by maturing of the genital organs, development of secondary sex characteristics, and in the human and in higher primates by the first occurrence of menstruation in the female, the age at which ~ occurs often construed legally as 14 in boys and 12 in girls