man-child
Plural men-children, † man-chylder(yn.
A male child.
| a 1400 Octouian 101 Vppon Florence..He gette and wan Two man-chylderyn. c 1430 Syr Tryam. 1707 Man chylder had they twoo. 14.. Sir Beues 3640 (MS. C) Man chyldur [A knaue children, M men children] had sche two. 1471 Caxton Recuyell (Sommer) I. 15 To espye..yf his wife broght forth men children. 1535 Coverdale Gen. xvii. 10 Euery manchilde whan it is eight dayes olde, shalbe circumcyded. 1590 Spenser F.Q. ii. i. 53 Lucina came: a manchild forth I brought. 1605 Shakes. Macb. i. vii. 72 Bring forth Men-Children onely: Fro thy vndaunted Mettle should compose Nothing but Males. 1700 Congreve Way of World iv. v, I denounce against all strait lacing, squeezing for a shape, till you mould my boy's head like a sugar-loaf, and instead of a man-child, make me father of a crooked billet. 1877 Black Green Past. iii. (1878) 23, I don't believe there is a man-child born in the town but you begin to wonder what the Government will do for him. |
Hence † manchildhood.
| a 1618 Sylvester St. Lewis 85 When Heav'ns assign'd him to his Father's Throne; And to the hands of his Man-Childehood left The glorious Burthen of this Scepter's heft. |