Re: Joining FoRK?

Eugene Leitl (eugene.leitl@lrz.uni-muenchen.de)
Thu, 5 Aug 1999 12:48:49 -0700 (PDT)

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Robert Harley writes:
> >consider that the Old English word "gurle" (girl) originally referred
> >to a young person of either gender; this was sufficiently ambiguous
> >that boy came into more common use (etymology, anyone?)
>
> Sure. From Old French "buie" or "boie" which meant chain. A boy was
> someone who was chained i.e, a servant or possibly slave in England
> after the Norman conquest (slavery had long since disappeared in
> France).

Hmm. Lad and lass are more recent, I gather?

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