schoolgirl

Etymology

It is a compound from English school + girl, formed after schoolboy;^[2][3][4][5] the OED compares the earlier schoolchild.^[2] That word is recorded from 1579.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A girl attending a school: 1658, in Richard Flecknoe's Enigmaticall Characters.^[2] The dates in other sources are later: 1678 in Merriam-Webster,^[6] 1770–80 in Dictionary.com,^[5] and 1777 in Etymonline and in the 1989 edition of the OED.^[3][7]

Semantic evolution

From the start the word could also be used allusively of a person compared to a schoolgirl for youth or immaturity.^[2] Etymonline records it as an adjective from 1822,^[3] and the Shorter Oxford dates the attributive use, "typical of a schoolgirl", to the mid 19th century;^[4] the 1989 edition of the OED lists combinations such as schoolgirl complexion, schoolgirl crush and schoolgirl French from 1922.^[7] Tréguer traces that schoolgirl complexion to advertising: in 1927 the linguist W. E. Collinson noted that when P. G. Wodehouse used it in Ukridge, many readers would think of the advertisements for Palmolive soap.^[8]

Timeline

• 1658 – a girl attending a school; also, allusively, an immature person.^[2]
• 1822 – used as an adjective.^[3]
• 1885 – schoolgirlhood, the state of being a schoolgirl, and schoolgirlism.^[7]
• 1922 – in combinations such as schoolgirl complexion and schoolgirl crush.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. A girl who attends school: a group of schoolgirls waiting for the bus.^[6][9][2]
2. (attributive) Of, like or typical of a schoolgirl: schoolgirl giggles, her schoolgirl Spanish.^[4][7]

Word family

• schoolgirlish

Related words

• schoolboy
• schoolchild
• school
• girl

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g 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 c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b c d e Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ Tréguer, Pascal, Word Histories, wordhistories.net, p. "history of ‘that schoolgirl complexion’", 12 April 2020
9. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin