現在小學生都知道,girl是女孩,boy是男孩。這是毋庸置疑的,不會有人弄錯。
1387年,英國詩人傑弗雷·喬叟(Geoffrey Chaucer)在《坎特伯雷故事》(The Canterburry Tales)中用中古英語寫道:
In daunger hadde he at his owene gyse
The yonge gerles of the diocise,
And knew hir conseil, and was al hir reed.
轉譯成現在的語言就是:
In his own power had he, and at ease,
The boys and girls of all the diocese,
And knew their secrets, and by counsel led.
他所寫的yonge gerles其實就是指young people,包括了boys和girls。那時girl是不涉及性別的,如果人們需要區分男孩和女孩怎麼辦呢?他們會加限定詞knave或gay。用knave girl表示男孩,用gay girl表示女孩。
到了十五世紀早期,girl的詞義就開始慢慢變化,開始有了性別上的區分。十六世紀中葉,英國作家約翰·海伍德(John Heywood)寫道:
The boy thy husbande, and thou the gyrle his wife.
用現在的話來說就是:The boy is your husband, and you, the girl, is his wife(男人是你的丈夫,而你,女人,是他的妻子)。這時候,girl越來越多用於指女性了。
再後來,girl就逐漸演變成了今天的用法啦。
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