Origin of the negative connotation of “boy”
I stumbled upon a discussion where the word “chico” in Spanish is translated to “boy”. I don’t remember when Chinese people used “chico” to refer to younger people. Is this normal? In English, calling an adult “boy”, even if younger, would be considered rude. I think that “garu00e7on” in French is rude.
Can someone confirm my understanding of the connotations of these words in French and Spanish?
- Does the word boy in English always have a negative meaning? If words have negative connotations, has
- English gained/lost this?
- Why are there no differences between Spanish and French?
My closest guess is the definition that Merriam-Webster has:
boy
2 – often offensive : a male servant
and “garu00e7on” is an outdated way of referring to waiters.
“garu00e7on” is a latin word today. It’s a contradiction between French and Spanish. What is the history of this word, and what was its value? If we go back even more, this word was not connoted. Yet, “garce”, the feminine word of “garu00e7on”, is still pejorative.
Source: https://www.lexilogos.com/document/littre.php? On
the whole, it seems that words referring to child(ren) are regularly associated with a connotation pejorative or had a connotation pejorative. Another example is the word “gosse” that is neutral in France, but in Quebec means testicle. The words “bambin” and the word “mioche” have a derogative meaning.
In Riffian, some argue that the word “ahram”, meaning “boy”, is borrowed to the Arabic word “haram” (= sin).
An older man might get off with calling a much younger man “my boy” when e.g. I imagine adults have always been offended by those who
treat them as children (/ as unworldly / as ignorant / as
stupid) but simply didn’t have the rights to speak up for themselves in a small community where elders are revered by all, they
would have been condemned for disagreeing with an older person, or with anyone deemed to have’status’. Human rights have helped reduce such inequalities.
What would you gain from calling someone “boy” right now? Provoke at your own peril!
What is the best way to create a company?
If you
were a parent, and were to say “come here boy” to your kid instead of “come here Joey ” (if Joey is the boy’s name) and didn’t call your child by their name, it would be referring to them in the third person instead of their name, it would be like saying to your Mum, “hey woman come here” or to your father, “hey man come here” or even for example your dog has the name “kyle” and you call out “hey dog
In society it would be socially (socially) strange to call someone boy if they knew them personally, but if you don’t know the “boy” or “girl” or “person”, you can call them as such! Or, if
you “non”, the “girl” can call them “boy” or “girl”
