girls

nounyoung female person

Word Origin & History

c.1300, gyrle "child" (of either sex), of unknown origin; current scholarship [OED says] leans toward an unrecorded Old English *gyrele, from Proto-Germanic *gurwilon-, diminutive of *gurwjoz (apparently also represented by Low German gære "boy, girl," Norwegian dialectal gorre, Swedish dialectal gurre "small child," though the exact relationship, if any, between all these is obscure), from PIE *ghwrgh-, also found in Greek parthenos "virgin." But this is highly conjectural. And Liberman (2008) writes:

Another candidate is Old English gierela "garment" (for possible sense evolution in this theory, cf. brat). Like boy, lass, lad it is of obscure origin. "Probably most of them arose as jocular transferred uses of words that had originally different meaning" [OED]. Specific meaning of "female child" is late 14c. Applied to "any young unmarried woman" since mid-15c. Meaning "sweetheart" is from 1640s. Girl next door as a type of unflashy attractiveness is recorded by 1953.

Girl Friday is from 1940, a reference to "Robinson Crusoe."

Example Sentences for girls

The girls I know are taught painstakingly how to get a husband, but nothing of how to be a wife.

She was soon missed, and all the girls in the house were set to looking for Catherine.

This process is performed by girls, with the aid of what is called a “bob” or “glazer.”

"And old Lambert," said one of the other girls, delightedly.

I suppose there are a number of girls here, although it's early.

Other girls marry persons whom they do not love, and it helps them to forget.

The girls can talk quietly and confidentially, if they choose.

She is so capable and the girls not only like her but respect her as well.

Girls, do you remember the dinner we gave here after the ghost party?

Harlowe House will hold, comfortably, thirty-two girls and no more.

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Synonyms for girls

noun young female person

Antonyms for girls

More words related to girls

chick

noun. (offensive) young woman

wench

noun. female servant