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A person I know is always well-protected by his mother. His mother goes with him whenever he goes, he is already 26 years. Which word sounds more correct for me to use as in the following sentence? (His mother's heart is just great; I always need him to realize that.)

He was over-protected/over-secured by his mother.

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Off-topic: "he is twenty-six years" is not idiomatic, with or without the "already". Either "he is twenty six" or "he is twenty six years old". In fact, "already " is not idiomatic either, in this sense. I would say "His mother goes with him everywhere, although he is 26." – Colin Fine Aug 12 '11 at 14:41

3 Answers

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Overprotected is a word, oversecured is not.

overprotected: Simple past tense and past participle of overprotect.

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Mother's boy or Mama's Boy , but there is surely a better word. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mother%27s_boy

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As @RiMMER says, overprotected is a valid word, but oversecured is not.

In speech (perhaps not quite so much in formal writing), it's more common to say such a person is mollycoddled (often, but not always, in the context of a mother mollycoddling her son).

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It's much more common to refer to her as "overprotective" than him as "overprotected", but it would be understood. – Colin Fine Aug 12 '11 at 14:39
@Colin Fine: Good point. But I think that only applies to the adjectival form. She's still more likely to be accused of mollycoddling than overprotecting, I feel. – FumbleFingers Aug 12 '11 at 14:42

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