Boying

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. Acting toward someone in a manner that treats them as a young boy or childishly immature
2. Behaving in a youthful, boyish fashion or regarding another person as though they were a lad
3. Characterizing conduct that treats an adult or man as a juvenile, often in a condescending way

Etymology: "Boying" is simply the present participle and gerund of "boy", so its story is really the story of the verb "to boy", which is rare. The noun "boy" itself has an unexpected history: the source word likely originally meant "brother" or "elder brother" in its Germanic ancestors, and the same root produced German "Bube" (a boy or a knave in card games) and Dutch "boef" (rogue, knave). The meanings of these relatives split apart, with some drifting toward roguery and others staying with the sense of a young male. Because "boy" has such close cousins in several languages, it is tempting to assume the English word came in one simple step from a single source. In fact the family of words runs across the Germanic languages, with cognates in Scots, West Frisian and Dutch, and English "bub" belonging to the same cluster. The verb "boying" inherits all of this, so any sense it carries comes from the noun's wide-ranging past rather than from a separate coinage.