puerilis Latin · revision 31614

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=derivation|attested=c. 250–184 BC, Plautus|origins=la puer}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * Classical: [pu.ɛˈriː.lɪs]^(Wiktionary)

+ * Ecclesiastical: [pu.eˈriː.lis]^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''puerīlis''' (neuter puerīle, comparative puerīlior, superlative puerīlissimus, adverb puerīliter); third-declension two-termination adjective^(Wiktionary)

+ The OLD notes the comparative ''puerīlior'' in Horace.^(OLD 2012) A spelling with ''pur-'' is also recorded.^(TLL)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is [[af|la|puer|-īlis|t1=boy, child]].^(OLD 2012)^(Wiktionary)^(TLL) De Vaan lists it under ⟨puer⟩, which he derives from [[itc-pro|*puwero-]], perhaps [[ine-pro|*ph₂u-ero-|t=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]].^(de Vaan 2008)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ De Vaan dates it from Plautus,^(de Vaan 2008)^(Köbler 2010) who speaks of reproaching a grown man with “boyish deeds”.^(OLD 2012)

+

+ ==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.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879) The pejorative “childish, immature” starts with Terence, whose character asks why he is being fooled “with your childish notion”.^(OLD 2012) Cicero and later writers use it of silly or trifling things.^(OLD 2012)

+

+ Church Latin glosses it “childish”.^(Stelten 1995) English [[m|en|puerile]] (1660s) comes from it or from French ''puéril''; the sense “merely juvenile, immature” is from the 1680s.^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * c. 250–184 BC – Plautus of boyish deeds.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 190–159 BC – Terence in the sense “childish”.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 81–43 BC – Cicero of boyhood and of childish things.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 1660s – English [[m|en|puerile]].^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Adjective===

+ # Of or belonging to a [[m|en|boy]] or child, [[m|en|boyish]], youthful.^(OLD 2012)^(Lewis & Short 1879)^(Wiktionary)

+ # ''(pejorative)'' [[m|en|childish]], [[m|en|puerile]], immature.^(OLD 2012)^(Wiktionary)^(Stelten 1995)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[puerīlitās]]

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[puer]]

+ * [[puera]]

+ * [[puerīliter]]

+ * [[pueritia]]

+ * [[en|puerile]]

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}