Boy

Boy

Forms

ME: boe, boi, boye…

ModE: boy

Etymology

Origin uncertain

Several theories:
A borrowing from French (in that case pre-conquest name evidence is rejected)

• Anglo Norman boie (unrecorded shortened variant of emboié) meaning person in chains
• Plausible explanation of the sense ‘male servant’
• Or more directly connected with Anglo-Norman boie (chain)
  

An alternative French etymology

• from Old French boiasse, a variant of Anglo-Nornam baisse (a female servant)
• the ending –asse as an equivalent of the feminine siffix –esse > a masculine form boie
• but there is no evidence of the masculine form in French or a feminine form in English
  

Of Germanic origin: native OE word or as a borrowing
Words for "boy" double as "servant, attendant" across the Indo-European map.
Italian: ragazzo, Middle English knāve, Old Church Slavonic otroku -- and often it is difficult to say which meaning came first.

Original Meaning

A male servant, slave (1300)
Perhaps attested earlier as a byname or surname: Boia (OE period)

Other meanings

• Rascal/ knave/ rogue/ devil (rarely) (1405)
• A male child or youth; also a son (1440)
• In pl. shackles, fetters (1485)
• A non-white slave (1625)
• A criminal (1834)
• A junior military rank (1841)
• As a familiar address to a male dog (That’s my boy!)
• US slang for heroin
  

ModE boy looks like a semantic blend of an onomatopoeic word for an evil spirit (*boi) and a baby word for 'brother' (*bo).

A noticeable number of the modern words for 'boy', 'girl', and 'child' were originally colloquial nicknames, derogatory and commonplace. These, as is natural, are of the most diverse, and in part obscure, origin.

References

1. “boy.” The Oxford English Dictionary. www.oed.com 25 Nov. 2014 < http://www.oed.com.ezproxy.is.cuni.cz/view/Entry/22323?rskey=DWqQjC&result=1#eid>.
   

1. “boy.” The Oxford English Dictionary. www.oed.com 25 Nov. 2014 < http://www.oed.com.ezproxy.is.cuni.cz/view/Entry/22323?rskey=DWqQjC&result=1#eid>.
   

1. ↑ Harper D. “boy.” Online Etymology Dictionary. 2001. etymonline.com. 25 Nov. 2014 <http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?allowed_in_frame=0&search=boy&searchmode=none>.
   

1. “boy.” The Oxford English Dictionary. www.oed.com 25 Nov. 2014 < http://www.oed.com.ezproxy.is.cuni.cz/view/Entry/22323?rskey=DWqQjC&result=1#eid>.
   

1. “boy.” The Oxford English Dictionary. www.oed.com 25 Nov. 2014 < http://www.oed.com.ezproxy.is.cuni.cz/view/Entry/22323?rskey=DWqQjC&result=1#eid>.
   

1. Liberman, Anatoly, Analytic Dictionary of English Etymology, University of Minnesota Press, 2008.
   

1. Buck, Carl Darling, A Dictionary of Selected Synonyms in the Principal Indo-European Languages, University of Chicago, 1949, reprinted 1988.