Boyhoods

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The period of life from childhood to adolescence, characterized by the experiences and development of young males
2. A phase in a male's life when he transitions from being a child to becoming a teenager, marked by physical and emotional changes
3. The time span during which a male experiences growth and self-discovery, encompassing various social and personal challenges

Etymology: Boyhood is a plain compound: "boy" joined to the suffix "-hood," which comes from Old English "-hād," meaning rank, condition or state of being. The same suffix gives us "childhood," "manhood" and "priesthood," so the word simply names the condition of being a boy. The plural "boyhoods" is the form of that noun, used when speaking of several boys' growing years or of more than one such period, as in the boyhoods of different men. "Boy" itself has an older root. Its Old English form was "bōia," and it passed into Middle English as "boye," which is where the modern spelling begins. The suffix "-hood" shares its origin with "-had," the English word for a state or stage of life, so the two parts of "boyhood" have been meaning roughly the same thing since the earliest days of English.

Synonyms: youths, childhoods

Antonyms: adulthood