girl

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[edit] English

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[edit] Etymology

A group of girls in Sri Lanka.

Middle English girle, gerle, gyrle ‘young person’, diminutive of Proto-Germanic *gurwijaz (cf. Low German Gör, Göre (child), Norwegian dialect gorre, Swedish dialect garre, gurre (small child)), from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰer- (short)[1] (compare Old Irish gair (short), Ancient Greek χρεώ (chreō, need, necessity), χρήσθαι (chrēsthai, to need), Sanskrit ह्रस्व (hrasva, short, small)).

[edit] Pronunciation

[edit] Noun

girl (plural girls)

  1. A young female (in contrast to boy), usually a child or adolescent.
    Amanda is a girl of 16.
  2. Any woman, regardless of her age. See usage notes.
  3. A female servant; a maid. See usage notes.
  4. (figuratively, pejorative) A boy with girl-like qualities, especially squeamishness.
    Stop being such a girl and punch back.
  5. (rare) A queen (the playing card.)[2]
  6. (colloquial) A term of endearment. See usage notes.
  7. a girlfriend.
    I'm going to meet my girl over there.
  8. a daughter.
    Your girl turned up on our doorstep.

[edit] Usage notes

  • (any woman, regardless of her age): Calling a grown woman a "girl" may be considered either a compliment or an insult, depending on context and sensibilities. In some cases, the term is used as a euphemism for virgin, to distinguish a female who has never engaged in sexual intercourse whereas a woman is one who has done so.

[edit] Synonyms

[edit] Derived terms

Look at pages starting with girl.

[edit] Translations

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Webster's New World Dictionary of the American Language, s.v. "girl" (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2002).
  2. ^ * Weisenberg, Michael (2000) The Official Dictionary of Poker. MGI/Mike Caro University. ISBN 978-1880069523

[edit] See also

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[edit] Anagrams

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