different between girl vs happy

English

Alternative forms

• girle, gyrle (obsolete)
• gal (colloquial)
• guhrl, gurl (nonstandard)
• grrrl, grrl (slang)

Etymology

From Middle English gerle, girle, gyrle (“young person of any gender”), of uncertain origin. Probably from Old English *gyrle, *gyrele, from Proto-Germanic *gurwilaz, a diminutive form of Proto-Germanic *gurwijaz (compare North Frisian gör (“girl”), Low German Gör, Göre (“child of any gender”), German Göre (“young child”), dialectal Norwegian gorre, dialectal Swedish garre, gurre (“small child”)), from Proto-Indo-European *??er- (“short”) (compare Old Irish gair (“short”), Ancient Greek ???? (khre?, “need, necessity”), ??????? (khr?sthai, “to need”), Sanskrit ?????? (hrasva, “short, small”)).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /???l/, (obsolete) /???l/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /??l/
• (General New Zealand) IPA^(key): /???l/, [??w]
• Rhymes: -??(?)l
• Homophone: Guirl

Noun

girl (countable and uncountable, plural girls)

1. A female child, adolescent, or a young woman.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:girl

   Antonyms: see Thesaurus:boy

   • 2006, Bryan Lee O'Malley, Scott Pilgrim & the Infinite Sadness, volume 3 of Scott Pilgrim

     Scott: Hey, it's our 8-month anniversary.

     Envy: Really? I can't even believe you remember that stuff!

     Scott: Whoa, wait a second... Am I the girl in this relationship?

     Envy: You totally are!
2. A young female animal.
3. (sometimes offensive) A woman, especially a young and often attractive woman.
4. A female servant; a maid. (see usage notes)

   Synonyms: char, charlady, charwoman, maid, maiden, maidservant, womanservant

5. (uncommon, card games) A queen (the playing card.)
6. (colloquial) A term of endearment. (see usage notes)

   Synonyms: girlie, lass, lassie

   • 1991, Stephen Fry, The Liar, pp. 8–9:

     'Now, girls,' continued Healey, 'you're very high-spirited and that's as it should be but I won't have you getting out of hand...' Setting a spatted foot on the bench that ran down the middle of the changing-room with elegant distain, Adrian began to flip through the pile of Y-fronts and rugger shorts with his cane.

7. One's girlfriend.
   • 1922, Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Girl from Hollywood

     There isn't any guy going to steal my girl!
8. One's daughter.

9. (Britain, dialect, obsolete) A roebuck two years old.
10. (US, slang, uncountable) Cocaine, especially in powder form.

    Synonyms: see Thesaurus:cocaine

    • 1969, Iceberg Slim, Pimp: The Story of My Life, Cash Money Content (2011), ?ISBN, page 43:

      She had taught me to snort girl, and almost always when I came to her pad, there would be thin sparkling rows of crystal cocaine on the glass top of the cocktail table.

    • 1977, Odie Hawkins, Chicago Hustle, Holloway House (1987), ?ISBN, page 175:

      Elijah nodded congenially to the early evening regulars in the Afro Lounge, headed straight for the telephone hung midway between the mens and womens, his nose smarting from a couple thick lines of recently snorted girl.

    • 2005, K'wan, Hoodlum, St. Martin's Press (2005), ?ISBN, page 185:

      After about an hour or two of half-ass sex and snorting girl, Honey was zoned out. […] She flexed her still numb fingers, trying to find a warmth that didn't seem to come. Cocaine always made her numb.

    • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:girl.
11. (somewhat childish) A female (tree, gene, etc).
    • 1950, Pageant:

      Are there “boy” trees and “girl” trees? Yes. A number of species, among them the yew, holly and date-bearing palm, have their male and female flowers on different trees. The male holly, for instance, must be planted fairly close to the female ...

    • 1970 [earlier 1963], Helen V. Wilson, Helen Van Pelt, Helen Van Pelt's African Violets, Dutton Adult (?ISBN):

      Of the 100 percent total, 25 will have two girl genes, 50 will have one boy and one girl gene, and 25 will have two boy genes.

    • 1972, GSN Gesneriad Saintpaulia News: African Violets, Gloxinias, Other Gesneriads and Exotic Plants:

      When there are two "girl" genes the plant is a girl dwarf.

12. (derogatory) A boy or man who is weak or sentimental.

    Synonyms: Jessie, sissy, wimp

    Don't be such a girl!

Usage notes

• (any woman, regardless of her age): An adult calling a grown woman a "girl" may be considered either a compliment or an insult, depending on context and sensibilities. In some cases, the term is used as a euphemism for virgin, to distinguish a female who has never engaged in sexual intercourse (a "girl") from one who has done so (and is a woman). Even if the word "girl" in most cases is not meant to be derogatory, it may still be patronising sometimes, especially when used to address someone older than oneself.
• (term of endearment): When used as a term of endearment, it can be used for someone female or, in some contexts, for someone male, such as the use within the gay community.

Derived terms

Pages starting with “girl”.

Descendants

• ? Hungarian: görl
• ? Japanese: ??? (g?ru)

Translations

References

Verb

girl (third-person singular simple present girls, present participle girling, simple past and past participle girled)

1. (transitive) To feminize or girlify; to gender as a girl or as for girls.
2. (somewhat informal) To staff with or as a girl or girls.
   • 1949, The New Yorker:

     Making our way past a one-girl switchboard temporarily girled by two frantic operators, we found the victorious president, Elliott A. Bowles, barely visible behind a heap of telegrams [...]

   • 1961, The Georgia Review:

     Her first shock came when the ship on which she and her husband arrived was met by three boats “girled” by “great, splendid creatures, as tall as our millionaires' tallest daughters, and as strong-looking as any of our college-girl athletes,” ...

   • 1986, Marcus Cunliffe, The Literature of the United States, New York, N.Y., U.S.A. : Penguin Books (?ISBN):

     She and her Altrurian diplomat husband, arriving there by sea, are greeted by flower-laden boats, each not manned, but girled by six rowers, who pulled as true a stroke as I ever saw.

   • 2009, Linda Howard, Night Moves: Dream Man/After the Night, Simon and Schuster (?ISBN), page 220:

     To her disappointment, the chatty Carlene DuBois wasn't behind the desk; instead it was manned—or girled—by a frothy little blonde who barely looked old enough to be out of high school.

See also

• miss

Anagrams

• LIRG, gril

French

Noun

girl f (plural girls)

1. dancing girl

English

Etymology

From Middle English happy (“fortunate, happy”), perhaps an alteration of Middle English happyn, happen (“fortunate, happy”), from Old Norse heppinn (“fortunate, happy”); assimilated to be equivalent to hap (“chance, luck, fortune”) +? -y. Compare also Icelandic heppinn (“lucky”), Scots happin (“fortunate, blessed”). See further at hap.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?hæpi?/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?hæpi/
• Rhymes: -æpi
• Hyphenation: hap?py

Adjective

happy (comparative happier or more happy, superlative happiest or most happy)

1. Having a feeling arising from a consciousness of well-being or of enjoyment; enjoying good of any kind, such as comfort, peace, or tranquillity; blissful, contented, joyous.
   • 1731, Thomas Bayes, Divine Benevolence: or, An Attempt to Prove that the Principal End of the Divine Providence and Government is the Happiness of His Creatures: Being an Answer to a Pamphlet, Entitled, Divine Rectitude; or, An Inquiry Concerning the Moral Perfections of the Deity. With a Refutation of the Notions therein Advanced Concerning Beauty and Order, the Reason of Punishment, and the Necessity of a State of Trial antecedent to Perfect Happiness, London: Printed for John Noon, at the White-Hart in Cheapside, near Mercers-Chapel, OCLC 642498368; quoted in Andrew I. Dale, Most Honourable Remembrance: The Life and Work of Thomas Bayes (Studies and Sources in the History of Mathematics and Physical Sciences), New York, N.Y.: Springer, 2003, ISBN 978-0-387-00499-0, page 138:

     […] For the most happy universe is not one that consists of the greatest possible number of the most happy beings only; but one that consists of that, and the greatest possible number of beings next inferior to the first rank, and so downward, till we come to those that approach the nearest to insensible matter.
2. Experiencing the effect of favourable fortune; favored by fortune or luck; fortunate, lucky, propitious.

   (Can we add an example for this sense?)
3. Content, satisfied (with or to do something); having no objection (to something).
4. (Of acts, speech, etc.) Appropriate, apt, felicitous.
   • 1991, Stephen Fry, The Liar, p. 58:

     ‘I had the happy notion of adding an egg,’ Williams shouted back. ‘It poaches in the soup. Not unlike an Italian stracciatella. Singularly toothsome...’

5. (in combination) Favoring or inclined to use.
6. (rare, of people, often followed by "at" or "in") Dexterous, ready, skilful.

Usage notes

• (contented, joyous): Said of people, hours, times, thoughts, etc.
• (fortunate, lucky): Said of efforts, expedients, omens, ventures, etc.

Alternative forms

• happie (obsolete)

Synonyms

• (contented, joyous): cheerful, content, delighted, elated, exultant, glad, joyful, jubilant, merry, orgasmic
• (fortunate, lucky): fortunate, lucky, propitious
• See also Thesaurus:happy

Antonyms

• (contented, joyous): blue, depressed, down, miserable, moody, morose, sad, unhappy
• (fortunate, lucky): unfortunate, unlucky, unpropitious
• (content, satisfied): disenchanted, dissatisfied
• (appropriate, apt): inappropriate, inapt, unfelicitous

Derived terms

Descendants

• ? German: happy
• ? Welsh: hapus (calque)
• ? Japanese: ????

Translations

Noun

happy (plural happies)

1. (informal, rare) A happy event, thing, person, etc.

Verb

happy (third-person singular simple present happies, present participle happying, simple past and past participle happied)

1. (intransitive, informal) Often followed by up: to become happy; to brighten up, to cheer up.
2. (transitive, informal) Often followed by up: to make happy; to brighten, to cheer, to enliven.

Synonyms

• (to make happy): happify

Further reading

• Happy (disambiguation) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

German

Etymology

Borrowed from English happy.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?h?pi/

Adjective

happy (comparative happyer, superlative am happysten)

1. (colloquial, chiefly predicative) glad; satisfied; momentarily happy

Usage notes

• The German word is used as a synonym of froh (“glad, momentarily happy”) rather than glücklich (“happy, both momentarily and generally in life”).
• On the rare occasion that this adjective is used attributively, the positive form happy typically remains undeclined, whereas the comparation forms are declined in the normal fashion.