puerilis

Forms

puerīlis (neuter puerīle, comparative puerīlior, superlative puerīlissimus, adverb puerīliter); third-declension two-termination adjective^[1] The OLD notes the comparative puerīlior in Horace.^[2] A spelling with pur- is also recorded.^[3]

Etymology

It is from Latin puer (“boy, child”) + -īlis.^[2][1][3] De Vaan lists it under ⟨puer⟩, which he derives from Proto-Italic *puwero-, perhaps Proto-Indo-European *ph₂u-ero- (“smaller”); since that form would rather have given ⟨*pawero-⟩, he suggests ⟨puer⟩ may have been built later to the Italic root for “small, young”, or to the stem of pūbēs.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Plautus,^[4][5] who speaks of reproaching a grown man with “boyish deeds”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It is first “of a boy or child”: Cicero has a boyish look with an old man's wisdom, and aetās puerīlis is childhood.^[2][6] The pejorative “childish, immature” starts with Terence, whose character asks why he is being fooled “with your childish notion”.^[2] Cicero and later writers use it of silly or trifling things.^[2]

Church Latin glosses it “childish”.^[7] English puerile (1660s) comes from it or from French puéril; the sense “merely juvenile, immature” is from the 1680s.^[8]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of boyish deeds.^[2][5]
• 190–159 BC – Terence in the sense “childish”.^[2][5]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of boyhood and of childish things.^[2][6][5]
• 1660s – English puerile.^[8]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of or belonging to a boy or child, boyish, youthful.^[2][6][1]
2. (pejorative) childish, puerile, immature.^[2][1][7]

Word family

• puerīlitās

Related words

• puer
• puera
• puerīliter
• pueritia
• English puerile

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
4. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
5. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
6. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
8. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com