boyとは意味・読み方・使い方

発音

• (Received 発音, General American) enPR: boi, IPA^(key): /bɔɪ/
• (Southern American English) IPA^(key): /bɔːə/
• 韻: -ɔɪ

名詞

boy (countable かつ uncountable, 複数形 boys)

1. A young male. [from 15th c.]

   Kate is dating a boy named Jim.

   • 1440, Promptorium Parvulorum, 35:

     Bye or boye: Bostio.

   • 1535, Bible (Coverdale), Zechariah, Chapter VIII, Verse 5:

     The stretes of the citie shalbe full of yonge boyes and damselles...

   • 1711 March 7, Jonathan Swift, Journal, line 208:

     I find I was mistaken in the sex, 'tis a boy.

   • 1812, Lord Byron, Childe Harold, Canto II, xxiii, 72:

     Ah! happy years! once more who would not be a boy?

   1. (particularly) A male child or teenager, as distinguished from infants or adults.
      • 1876, Frances Eliza Millett Notley, The Kiddle-a-Wink, "A Tale of Love", page 169:

        "He is not quite a baby, Alfred," said Ellen, "though he is only a big stupid boy. We have made him miserable enough. Let us leave him alone."

2. (diminutive) A son of any age.
   • 1805, Walter Scott, “(please specify the page)”, in The Lay of the Last Minstrel: A Poem, London: […] [James Ballantyne] for Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme, […], and A[rchibald] Constable and Co., […], OCLC 1001655651:

     My only boy fell by the side of great Dundee.

3. (endearing, diminutive) A male of any age, particularly one rather younger than the speaker. [from 17th c.]
4. (obsolete) A male of low station, (especially as pejorative) a worthless male, a wretch; a mean and dishonest male, a knave. [14th-17th c.]
   • c. 1603–1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act I, scene iv]:

     Dost thou call me fool, boy?

5. (now rare and usually offensive outside some Commonwealth nations) A male servant, slave, assistant, or employee, [from 14th c.] particularly:
   • c. 1300, King Horn, line 1075:

     þe boye hit scholde abugge; Horn þreu him ouer þe brigge.

   • 1899 Feb, Joseph Conrad, “The Heart of Darkness”, in Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, page 211:

     He allowed his ‘boy’ - an overfed young negro from the coast - to treat the white men, under his very eyes, with provoking insolence.

   • 1973, Thomas Pynchon, Gravity's Rainbow, i, 37:

     ‘Why does he go out and pinch all his dogs in person? He's an administrator, isn't he? Wouldn't he hire a boy or something?’
     ‘We call them “staff”,’ Roger replies.

   1. A younger such worker.
      • 1721, Penelope Aubin, The Life of Madam de Beaumount, ii, 36:

        I resolved to continue in the Cave, with my two Servants, my Maid, and a Boy, whom I had brought from France.

   2. (historical or offensive) A non-white male servant regardless of age, [from 17th c.] particularly as a form of address.
      • 1625, W. Hawkins in Samuel Purchas, Hakluytus Posthumus or Purchas his Pilgrimes, Vol. I, iii, vii, 211:

        My Boy Stephen Grauener.

      • 1834, Edward Markham, New Zealand or Recollections of It, 72:

        They picked out two of the strongest of the Boys (as they call the Men) about the place.

      • 1876, Ebenezer Thorne, The Queen of the Colonies, or, Queensland as I Knew It, 58:

        The blacks who work on a station or farm are always, like the blacks in the Southern States, called boys.

      • 1907 May 13, N.Y. Evening Post, 6:

        [In Shanghai,] The register clerk assigns you to a room, and instead of ‘Front!’ he shouts ‘Boy!’

      • 1959, Anthony Burgess, Beds in the East (The Malayan Trilogy), published 1972, page 521:

        He thrust his head into the aisle. "Boy!" A Chinese in a white coat responded listlessly. "What will you have? Beer?"

      • 1960 February 5, Northern Territory News, 5/5:

        Aborigine Wally... described himself as ‘number one boy’ at the station.

   3. (obsolete) A male camp follower.
      • 1572, John Sadler translating Flavius Vegetius Renatus, Foure Bookes... Contayninge a Plaine Forme, and Perfect Knowledge of Martiall Policye..., iii, vii:

        If any water be rough and boysterous, or the chanell verye broade, it manye times drowneth the carriages and the boyes and nowe and then slouthfull and lyther souldiours.

      • 1599, William Shakespeare, “The Life of Henry the Fift”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act IV, scene vii]:

        Godes plud kil the boyes and the lugyge,
        Tis the arrants peece of knauery […]

6. (now offensive) Any non-white male, regardless of age. [from 19th c.]
   • 1812, Anne Plumptre translating Hinrich Lichtenstein, Travels in Southern Africa, in the Years 1803, 1804, 1805, and 1806, Vol. I, i, viii, 119:

     A Hottentot... expects to be called by his name if addressed by any one who knows it; and by those to whom it is not known he expects to be called Hottentot... or boy.

   • 1888, Louis Diston Powles, Land of Pink Pearl, or Recollections of Life in the Bahamas, 66:

     Every darky, however old, is a boy.

   • 1973 September 8, Black Panther, 7/2:

     [In Alabama,] Guards still use the term ‘boy’ to refer to Black prisoners.

   • 1979, Bert Newton and Mohammed Ali, The Logie Awards:

     BN: [repeating a catchphrase] I like the boy.
     MA: [to hostile audience] Hold it, hold it, hold it. Easy. Did you say ‘Roy’ or ‘boy’?
     BN: ‘I like the boy’. There's nothing wrong with saying that... Hang on, hang on, hang on... I'll change religion, I'll do anything for ya, I don't bloody care... What's wrong with saying that? ‘I like the boy’?
     MA: Boy...
     BN: I mean, I like the man. I'm sorry, Muhammad.

7. A male animal, especially, in affectionate address, a male dog. [from 15th c.]

   C'mere, boy! Good boy! Who's a good boy?

   Are you getting a boy cat or a girl cat?

8. (historical, military) A former low rank of various armed services; a holder of this rank.
   • 1841 May 6, Times in London, 5/4:

     Wounded... 1 Boy, 1st class, severely.

   • 1963 April 30, Times in London, 16/2:

     He joined the Navy as a boy second class in 1898.

9. (US, slang, uncountable) Heroin. [from 20th c.]
10. (somewhat childish) A male (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.

同意語

• (young male): See Thesaurus:boy
• (diminutive term of address to males): chap, guy, lad, mate
• (son): See son
• (male servant): manservant
• (disreputable man): brat, knave, squirt
• (heroin): See Thesaurus:heroin

反意語

• (young male): See Thesaurus:girl

派生語

別の表記

• boi

派生した語

間投詞

boy

1. Exclamation of surprise, pleasure or longing.

   Boy, that was close!

   Boy, that tastes good!

   Boy, I wish I could go to Canada!

   • 2020 December 2, Paul Bigland, “My weirdest and wackiest Rover yet”, in Rail, page 68:

     Time is running out, so I renounce a spin on a Class 387 for a fast run to Paddington on another Class 800 - a shame as the weather was perfect for pictures. Even so, it's enjoyable - boy, can those trains shift under the wires.

関連する語

• oh boy

動詞

boy (三人称単数 現在形 boys, 現在分詞 boying, 過去形および過去分詞形 boyed)

1. (transitive) To act as a boy (in allusion to the former practice of boys acting women's parts on the stage).
   • c. 1606–1607, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Anthonie and Cleopatra”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act V, scene ii]:

     I shall see some squeaking Cleopatra boy my greatness.

参考

• girl, man (antonyms in some senses)
• Appendix:English collective nouns

参照

• Webster's Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary, Springfield, Massachusetts, G.&C. Merriam Co., 1967

アナグラム

• BYO, Y. O. B., Y.O.B., YOB, YoB, byo, oby, yob