means The period of being young — early life between childhood and full adulthood — or, collectively, young people themselves.

from From Old English geoguth, meaning youth or young people, which traces back through the Germanic family (a cousin of Dutch jeugd and German Jugend) to the same ancient root that gives us "young" itself. The word has carried its meaning steadily for well over a thousand years — the thing it names may be fleeting, but the word has proven remarkably durable.