boyhood

Etymology

It is formed from English boy + -hood.^[2][3][4][5] The suffix goes back to Old English -hād (“condition, quality, position”), once a word in its own right, as in ċildhād (“childhood”).^[3][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The state of being a boy, or the time of life when one is a boy: first recorded in Northbrooke's Spiritus est Vicarius Christi, probably of 1577.^[2] Etymonline dates the word to 1745 and Dictionary.com to 1735–45.^[3][4]

Semantic evolution

Besides the period of life, the word could be used figuratively for the early stage of anything.^[2] Johnson (1755) defined it as "the state of a boy; the part of life in which we are boys", quoting Swift.^[7] From 1820 it was also used for boys taken collectively, a sense the OED now calls rare.^[2][8]

Timeline

• c. 1577 – the state or time of being a boy.^[2][9] Etymonline dates the word to 1745.^[3]
• 1820 – boys considered collectively.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. The state or time of being a boy: He spent his boyhood on a farm in Kent.^[10][8][2]
2. Boys considered as a group.^[8][2]

Related words

• boy
• childhood
• manhood

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
5. ^ Webster, Noah (1828), An American Dictionary of the English Language, New York: S. Converse
6. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
8. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
9. ^ Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
10. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins