Etymology Inherited from Middle English infaunt, borrowed from Latin īnfantem, accusative masculine singular of īnfāns, nominal use of the adjective meaning 'not able to speak', from īn- (“not”) + fāns, present participle of for (“to speak”). The verb is from Anglo-Norman enfanter, from the same Latin source. Doublet of infante.
1
A very young human being, from birth to somewhere between six months and two years of age after birth, needing almost constant care and attention.
Thomas Humphrey Doleman died the 30th of August 1712, an infant, intestate and without issue; Lewis the next nephew died the 17th of April 1716, an infant about sixteen years old, having left his mother Mary Webb, ...1793, William Peere Williams, Samuel Compton Cox, Reports of Cases Argued and Determined in the High Court of Chancery, and of Some Special Cases Adjudged in the Court of King's Bench [1695-1735]: De Term. S. Trin. 1731, page 602:
3
Commonwealth, Ireland, UK A student in an infant school or the first part of a primary school.
Retourned home, the royall Infant fell / Into her former fitt [...].1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto II”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:
Etymology Inherited from Middle English infaunt, borrowed from Latin īnfantem, accusative masculine singular of īnfāns, nominal use of the adjective meaning 'not able to speak', from īn- (“not”) + fāns, present participle of for (“to speak”). The verb is from Anglo-Norman enfanter, from the same Latin source. Doublet of infante.
1
Commonwealth, Ireland, UK Of or pertaining to the earlier half of primary school education.
Primary schooling in Ireland comprises two Infant years, which are equivalent to pre-school in other countries , and six grades or classes.2019, Sandra Ballweg, Portfolioarbeit im Kontext von Sprachenunterricht, Göttingen University Press, →ISBN, page 26:
Clearly, from the attention given to it, HMI believed that history should be part of the infant curriculum.2022 November 21, Carol Aubrey, The Role of Subject Knowledge in the Early Years of Schooling, Taylor & Francis, →ISBN:
2
Figuratively, Of a river small, being near its source.
Leaving Nantyglo, a small station at an altitude of 1,030 ft. with the platform on the eastern side, the train runs northwards over former G.W.R. metals, with the infant River Ebbw, a little more than a yard wide, on the west.1957 October 23, William J. Skillern, “The Brynmawr & Western Valleys Railway”, in Railway Magazine, page 696:
infant
verb
Etymology Inherited from Middle English infaunt, borrowed from Latin īnfantem, accusative masculine singular of īnfāns, nominal use of the adjective meaning 'not able to speak', from īn- (“not”) + fāns, present participle of for (“to speak”). The verb is from Anglo-Norman enfanter, from the same Latin source. Doublet of infante.
1
Obsolete To bear or bring forth (a child); to produce, in general.
This worthy motto, "No bishop, no king," is […] infanted out of the same fears.1641 May, John Milton, Of Reformation Touching Church-Discipline in England: And the Causes that hitherto have Hindred it. […], [London]: […] Thomas Vnderhill, →OCLC: