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Synonyms for girl


Grammar : Noun
Spell : gurl
Phonetic Transcription : gɜrl

Top 10 synonyms for girl Other synonyms for the word girl

Définition of girl

Origin :
  • 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:
  • Girl does not go back to any Old English or Old Germanic form. It is part of a large group of Germanic words whose root begins with a g or k and ends in r. The final consonant in girl is a diminutive suffix. The g-r words denote young animals, children, and all kinds of creatures considered immature, worthless, or past their prime.
  • 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.
  • Doris [Day] was a big vocalist even before she hit the movies in 1948. There, as the latest movie colony "girl next door," sunny-faced Doris soon became a leading movie attraction as well as the world's top female recording star. "She's the girl next door, all right," said one Hollywood admirer. "Next door to the bank." ["Life" magazine, Dec. 22, 1958]
  • Girl Friday is from 1940, a reference to "Robinson Crusoe."
  • noun young female person
Example sentences :
  • You know that Milbrey girl must get her effrontery direct from where they make it.
  • Extract from : « The Spenders » by Harry Leon Wilson
  • To have married a girl who cared only for his money; that would have been dire enough.
  • Extract from : « The Spenders » by Harry Leon Wilson
  • Percival fancied there was a look almost of regret in the girl's eyes.
  • Extract from : « The Spenders » by Harry Leon Wilson
  • The newcomer went quickly, with catlike tread, toward the girl.
  • Extract from : « The Spenders » by Harry Leon Wilson
  • I know more than one New York girl who'd have jumped at the chance.
  • Extract from : « The Spenders » by Harry Leon Wilson
  • Going back amazed, he asked his companion who the girl he had seen could have been.
  • Extract from : « The Armourer's Prentices » by Charlotte M. Yonge
  • They awoke one morning to find the car on a siding at the One Girl mine.
  • Extract from : « The Spenders » by Harry Leon Wilson
  • He stood in deep shadow and the girl had been too absorbed in the play to note his coming.
  • Extract from : « The Spenders » by Harry Leon Wilson
  • "It'll be no easy matter marrying that girl," he told Mrs. Drelmer.
  • Extract from : « The Spenders » by Harry Leon Wilson
  • He was forced to admit that the girl still had power to trouble him.
  • Extract from : « The Spenders » by Harry Leon Wilson

Antonyms for girl

Based on : Thesaurus.com - Gutenberg.org - Dictionary.com - Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019