young [OE] Young and youth [OE] are from the same ancient root as Latin juvenis ‘young’(pronounced with a ‘y’ sound), source of juvenile [E17th] and rejuvenate [M18th]. The good die young is a proverb from the late 17th century, but the idea goes back to the ancient Greek playwright Menander, who wrote: ‘Whom the gods love dies young.’ A young turk is now a young person eager for radical change, a meaning that comes from the Young Turks who carried out the revolution of 1908 in the Ottoman Empire and deposed the sultan Abdul Hamid II.