doll

Pronunciation

• IPA: /dɒl/ (UK); /dɑl/ (US)^[1]

Etymology

It is from Doll, a pet form of the name Dorothy,^[2][3][4] with -l- for -r- as in Hal for Harry, Moll for Mary and Sally for Sarah.^[3][2][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Doll, a pet name given generically to a female favourite or mistress: 1560 in the OED and Barnhart, the 1550s in Etymonline.^[6][2][3]

Semantic evolution

In old slang, from the 1610s, a doll was a sweetheart or mistress, and by the 1640s the word had degenerated to slattern.^[3] The sense of a child's toy baby is attested by 1700;^[3][2] before this the toy was called a poppet or puppet.^[7] The sense returned to people in 1778 as a pretty but silly woman,^[3][6] as attractive girl in American slang of the 1840s,^[7] and by the mid-20th century as an affectionate or patronizing name for a young woman.^[3] The verb, to pet a child, is from 1867 in dialect, and to doll up, to dress up, by 1882 in Australia and New Zealand.^[3] Doll's house is from 1783 and dollhouse from 1873.^[2]

Timeline

• 1560 – a mistress.^[6]
• 1640s – a slattern.^[3]
• c. 1700 – a toy figure.^[2]
• 1778 – a pretty, silly woman.^[6]
• 1783 – doll's house.^[2]
• 1882 – doll up (Australia).^[3]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A small figure of a human being, used as a toy.
2. (slang) An attractive person, especially a woman, or a term of endearment.
3. (informal) A helpful or obliging person.

Verb

1. (doll up) To dress up smartly or showily.

Word family

• dollish
• dollishly
• dollishness
• dollface
• dollhouse
• dolly
• baby doll
• doll up

Related words

• puppet
• poppet
• Dorothy

Usage notes

The American Heritage note observes that doll has risen in the world: Doll and Dolly were nicknames for Dorothy, and Doll, like Jill and Nan, took on the generic sense of a mistress, as in Shakespeare's Doll Tearsheet.^[8] In Oxfordshire, Berkshire and Sussex dialect a doll was the smallest pig of a litter.^[9]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
9. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)