boy

English

/bɔɪ/, /bɔːə/

noun
Definitions
  • A young male.
  • (diminutive) A male child: a son of any age.
  • (affectionate) A male of any age, particularly one rather younger than the speaker.
  • (obsolete) A male of low station, (especially as pejorative) a worthless male, a wretch; a mean and dishonest male, a knave.
  • (now) A male servant, slave, assistant, or employee, particularly:
  • (now) Any non-white male, regardless of age.
  • A male animal, especially, in affectionate address, a male dog.
  • (historical) A former low rank of various armed services; a holder of this rank.
  • (US) Heroin.
  • (somewhat) A male (tree, gene, etc).

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English boy inherited from Old English bōia (boy) inherited from Proto-Germanic *bōjô (younger brother, young male relation), *bō- (close relation, close male relation, brother, kinsman, male relative, father) derived from Proto-Indo-European *bʰā- (say).

Origin

Proto-Indo-European

*bʰā-

Gloss

say

Concept
Semantic Field

Speech and language

Ontological Category

Action/Process

Kanji

言

Emoji

Timeline

Distribution of cognates by language

Geogrpahic distribution of cognates

Cognates and derived terms