puerile

See also puérile

English

WOTD - 9 February 2007    

Etymology

From Latin pueriliīs (“childish”), from puer (“a child, a boy”).

Pronunciation

• (RP) IPA: /ˈpjʊə.raɪl/, SAMPA: /"pjU@.raIl/
• (US) IPA: /ˈpjʊrɪl/, /ˈpjʊraɪl/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Adjective

puerile (comparative more puerile, superlative most puerile)

1. Characteristic of, or pertaining to, a boy or boys; confer: puellile.
2. Childish; trifling; silly.
   • (Can we date this quote?) De Quincey:

     The French have been notorious through generations for their puerile affectation of Roman forms, models, and historic precedents.

   • 1927, Thornton Wilder, The Bridge of San Luis Rey, page 79:

     From the table he had received the gout; from the alcove a tendency to convulsions; from the grandeeship a pride so vast and puerile that he seldom heard anything that was said to him and talked to the ceiling in a perpetual monologue; from the exile, oceans of boredom, a boredom so persuasive that it was like pain,—he woke up with it and spent the day with it, and it sat by his bed all night watching his sleep.

Synonyms

• (childish): juvenile, silly, trifling,

Derived terms

• puerility

Translations

French: puéril Italian: puerile, infantile Latin: puerīlis

Polish: infantylny m., dziecinny m. Spanish: pueril m. and f.

See also

• boyish
• yobbish
• youthful

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Italian

Adjective

puerile m. and f. (m and f plural puerili)

1. puerile, childish, juvenile, boyish
2. (rare) children's (attribute), baby (attribute)

Synonyms

• infantile

Related terms

• puerilmente
• puerilicultura
• puerilità
• puerilismo
• puerizia

Anagrams

• pelurie

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Latin

Adjective

puerīle

1. nominative neuter singular of puerīlis
2. accusative neuter singular of puerīlis
3. vocative neuter singular of puerīlis