boy

Ancestral Lore

boy
mid-13^th century - boie "servant, commoner, knave" (generally young and male)
circa 1300 - "rascal, ruffian, knave; urchin"
A word of unknown origin.
Words for "boy" double as "servant, attendant" across the Indo-European map. For instance, Italian ragazzo, French garçon, Greek pais, Middle English knave, Old Church Slavonic otroku — and often it is difficult to say which meaning came first.
A knave girl was called a boy.
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