Girlとは

意味・読み方・使い方

語源

A group of girls in Sri Lanka.

From Middle English gerle, girle, gyrle (“young person of any gender”), of uncertain origin. Probably from 古期英語 *gyrle, *gyrele, from Proto-Germanic *gurwilaz, a diminutive form of Proto-Germanic *gurwijaz (compare North Frisian gör (“girl”), Low German Gör, Göre (“child of any gender”), German Göre (“young child”), dialectal Norwegian gorre, dialectal Swedish garre, gurre (“small child”)), from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰer- (“short”)^[1] (compare Old Irish gair (“short”), Ancient Greek χρεώ (khreṓ, “need, necessity”), χρήσθαι (khrḗsthai, “to need”), Sanskrit ह्रस्व (hrasva, “short, small”)).

発音

• (Received 発音) IPA^(key): /ɡɜːl/, (廃れた用法) /ɡɛəl/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ɡɝl/
• (General New Zealand) IPA^(key): /ɡɵːl/, [ɡʏw]
• 韻: -ɜː(ɹ)l
• Homophone: Guirl

名詞

girl (countable かつ uncountable, 複数形 girls)

1. A female child, adolescent, or a young woman.
   • 1898, Winston Churchill, chapter 4, in The Celebrity:

     No matter how early I came down, I would find him on the veranda, smoking cigarettes, or […] . And at last I began to realize in my harassed soul that all elusion was futile, and to take such holidays as I could get, when he was off with a girl, in a spirit of thankfulness.

   • 1934, Agatha Christie, chapter 3, in Murder on the Orient Express, London: HarperCollins, published 2017, page 27:

     The woman opposite him was a mere girl - twenty at a guess.

   • 2006, Bryan Lee O'Malley, Scott Pilgrim & the Infinite Sadness, volume 3 of Scott Pilgrim

     Scott: Hey, it's our 8-month anniversary.

     Envy: Really? I can't even believe you remember that stuff!

     Scott: Whoa, wait a second... Am I the girl in this relationship?

     Envy: You totally are!

   • 2013 July 19, Mark Tran, “Denied an education by war”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 6, page 1:

     One particularly damaging, but often ignored, effect of conflict on education is the proliferation of attacks on schools […] as children, teachers or school buildings become the targets of attacks. Parents fear sending their children to school. Girls are particularly vulnerable to sexual violence.

2. A young female animal.
3. (sometimes offensive) A woman, especially a young and often attractive woman.
4. A female servant; a maid. (see usage notes)
5. (まれに, card games) A queen (the playing card.)
6. (colloquial) A term of endearment. (see usage notes)
   • 1991, Stephen Fry, The Liar, pp. 8–9:

     'Now, girls,' continued Healey, 'you're very high-spirited and that's as it should be but I won't have you getting out of hand...' Setting a spatted foot on the bench that ran down the middle of the changing-room with elegant distain, Adrian began to flip through the pile of Y-fronts and rugger shorts with his cane.

7. One's girlfriend.
   • 1922, Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Girl from Hollywood

     There isn't any guy going to steal my girl!

   • 1996, Elizabeth Wong, Kimchee and Chitlins: A Serious Comedy about Getting Along, page 74:

     I took my girl to the cinema to watch your American movies.

8. One's daughter.

   Your girl turned up on our doorstep.

9. (Britain, dialect, obsolete) A roebuck two years old.
10. (US, slang, uncountable) Cocaine, especially in powder form.
    • 1969, Iceberg Slim, Pimp: The Story of My Life, Cash Money Content (2011), →ISBN, page 43:

      She had taught me to snort girl, and almost always when I came to her pad, there would be thin sparkling rows of crystal cocaine on the glass top of the cocktail table.

    • 1977, Odie Hawkins, Chicago Hustle, Holloway House (1987), →ISBN, page 175:

      Elijah nodded congenially to the early evening regulars in the Afro Lounge, headed straight for the telephone hung midway between the mens and womens, his nose smarting from a couple thick lines of recently snorted girl.

    • 2005, K'wan, Hoodlum, St. Martin's Press (2005), →ISBN, page 185:

      After about an hour or two of half-ass sex and snorting girl, Honey was zoned out. […] She flexed her still numb fingers, trying to find a warmth that didn't seem to come. Cocaine always made her numb.

    • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:girl.
11. (somewhat childish) A female (tree, gene, etc).
    • 1950, Pageant:

      Are there “boy” trees and “girl” trees? Yes. A number of species, among them the yew, holly and date-bearing palm, have their male and female flowers on different trees. The male holly, for instance, must be planted fairly close to the female ...

    • 1970 [earlier 1963], Helen V. Wilson, Helen Van Pelt, Helen Van Pelt's African Violets, Dutton Adult (→ISBN):

      Of the 100 percent total, 25 will have two girl genes, 50 will have one boy and one girl gene, and 25 will have two boy genes.

    • 1972, GSN Gesneriad Saintpaulia News: African Violets, Gloxinias, Other Gesneriads and Exotic Plants:

      When there are two "girl" genes the plant is a girl dwarf.

12. (derogatory) A boy or man who is weak or sentimental.

    Synonyms: Jessie, sissy, wimp

    Don't be such a girl!

使用する際の注意点

• (any woman, regardless of her age): An adult calling a grown woman a "girl" may be considered either a compliment or an insult, depending on context and sensibilities. In some cases, the term is used as a euphemism for virgin, to distinguish a female who has never engaged in sexual intercourse (a "girl") from one who has done so (かつ is a woman). Even if the word "girl" in most cases is not meant to be derogatory, it may still be patronising sometimes, especially when used to address someone older than oneself.
• (term of endearment): When used as a term of endearment, it can be used for someone female or, in some contexts, for someone male, such as the use within the gay community.

同意語

• (young female human): See Thesaurus:girl
• (diminutive term of address to females): girlie, lass, lassie
• (daughter): See daughter
• (female servant): char, charlady, charwoman, maid, maiden, maidservant, womanservant
• (cocaine): See Thesaurus:cocaine

反意語

• (young female human): See Thesaurus:boy

派生語

Pages starting with “girl”.

派生した語

• → Hungarian: görl
• → Japanese: ガール (gāru)

参照

動詞

girl (三人称単数 現在形 girls, 現在分詞 girling, 過去形および過去分詞形 girled)

1. (transitive) To feminize or girlify; to gender as a girl or as for girls.
   • 2005, Leerom Medovoi, Rebels: Youth and the Cold War Origins of Identity, page 293:

     Quite different is the way in which the tomboy girled the rebel narrative. In recent years, queer theorists have taken a deep interest in the tomboy as a prefigure for the butch dyke.

   • 2011, Stephanie Harzewski, Chick Lit and Postfeminism:

     One can argue that the genre “yuppified” the popular romance novel or perhaps “girled” the not especially gender-specific concept of the young urban professional.