Boy

Form:

ME: bey, beye, boey, boi, ...

ModE: boy

Meanings

early meanings: 'male servant' or 'person of low birth status'

later the meaning 'young male'

Origin

- uncertain

2 theories:

a) Germanic origin (OE word or borrowing from other Germanic languages)

- a surname/nickname (Roberti litelboie, Willelmi Godeboye, Alanus Boye, ...)

b) Borrowing from French

- boie: aphaeresis (a shortened form) of the Anglo-Norman word emboié/embuié/enbué (ADJ - 'fettered' or N - 'a person in chains')

- boiasse: a French word for a female servant; -asse as a female suffix, analogically male servant without the suffix

Evidence in other languages

Middle Dutch boye - (female) servant

Low German boi

Frisian boai

all of these forms could originate from a nursery form of the word 'brother' (cf. German Bub(e))