boyism
(ˈbɔɪɪz(ə)m)
[f. boy n.1+ -ism.]
1. The characteristic nature of a boy.
| a 1790 T. Warton in Sir E. Brydges Milton (1853) 566 Perhaps the real boyism of the brother..is to be taken into the account. 1826 Disraeli Viv. Grey i. i. (1878) 1 The spirit of boyism began to develop itself. |
2. A boyish characteristic or trait; a puerility.
| 1700 Dryden Fables Pref. (Globe) 498 A thousand such boyisms which Chaucer rejected. 1717 Garth Ovid's Met. Pref., These are some of our poet's boyisms. |
† 3. Boyhood. Obs.
| 1810 Rev. R. Polwhele Poet. Register 48 The progress of Genius in boyism and in youth. |