boyhood

English

Etymology

From boy +‎ -hood.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈbɔɪˌhʊd/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Noun

boyhood (countable and uncountable, plural boyhoods)

1. The state or period of being a boy.
   • 1829, Edgar Allan Poe, “Tamerlane”, in Al Aaraaf, Tamerlane and Minor Poems:

     And boyhood is a summer sun
     Whose waning is the dreariest one —
     For all we live to know is known
     And all we seek to keep hath flown — […]

   • 1951 October, R. S. McNaught, “Lines of Approach”, in Railway Magazine, page 703:

     It is certainly my personal favourite, for it was by way of Hardwick's great Doric arch that I first sampled the roar and clatter of London streets, the trip being a boyhood reward for achieving (unexpected) success in a school examination!

Related terms

• good old boyhood

Translations

The state or period of being a boy

• Assamese: ল’ৰালি (lörali)
• Esperanto: knabeco
• Finnish: poikuus (fi)
• Galician: nenez f
• Georgian: სიყრმე (siq̇rme)
• Kazakh: ересектік (eresektık)
• Kurdish:

  Central Kurdish: کوڕێتی (kurrêtî)

• Macedonian: момчештво n (momčeštvo)
• Polish: chłopięctwo n, lata chłopięce n pl
• Portuguese: meninice f
• Russian: о́трочество (ru) n (ótročestvo)
• Serbo-Croatian: дечаштво n
• Spanish: niñez (es) f