| 释义 |
young man
Also youngman.
[Cf. NFris. ongman lad, fellow, Du. jongmensch young man, jonkman bachelor, G. jungmann deckhand, ordinary seaman, ON. ungmenni youths.]
1. A man who is young; one in early manhood.
For the vocative use, see young a. 1 b.
a1122O.E. Chron. (Laud MS.) an. 1052 Rodberd..& Vlf..ofsloᵹon & elles amyrdon maniᵹe iunge men. c1200Vices & Virtues 69 Ðies ȝunge mann ȝiede a-wei sari. c1205Lay. 376 A ȝung mon of þriti ȝeren. a1375Joseph Arim. 437 Þou weore a ȝong mon in þi grete strengþe. 1607–12Bacon Ess., Youth & Age (Arb.) 258 Yonge men in the Conduct..of accions embrace more then they can hold. 1687A. Lovell tr. Thevenot's Trav. i. 278 When Young-men find themselves all of a sudden advanc'd to so great power. 1840Dickens Old C. Shop xiv, Abel has not been brought up like the run of young men. 1865― Mut. Fr. iii. vii, You had better provide yourself with another situation, young man.
b. Written as one word. (Not now in standard use.)
a1250Prov. ælfred 134 in O.E. Misc. (1872) 110 Ne scolde neuer yongmon howyen to swiþe þeih him his wyse wel ne lykie. a1300Cursor M. 18984 Yur suns and yur doghteres fre, And yur yongmen sightes se. c1400Apol. Loll. 59 Ȝengmen. 1486in Surtees Misc. (1890) 47 If this slaunderous report come to the eers of some yongmen of the blode that he is of. 1591Spenser Virg. Gnat 431 A rulesse rout of yongmen..lie wallowed in their blood. 1961Evergreen Rev. July–Aug. 15 There was a youngman I had seen often around Times Square. Like me, he was..hustling. 1963J. Rechy City of Night i. 43 Part of Pete's technique as a hustler was to tell the men he'd been with that he knew other youngmen like himself. 1967R. McGough in A. Henri et al. Mersey Sound 91 Let me die a youngman's death not a clean & inbetween the sheets holywater death. 1977Sunday Times (Lagos) 6 Feb. 3/3 A police dog also bit a youngman who was rushed to the hospital for treatment.
Comb.1551T. Wilson Logic T j b, He went in freshe apparell, yong man like.
2. With special application or connotation.
a. Various uses: see quots.
Quots. 1577 and c 1643 relate to Galway; cf. the following:—‘In 1611, the ‘young men’ obtained a charter from the corporation, instituting them a body politic of themselves... Their ‘captain’ was privileged to sit next the sheriffs... They were also exempt from paying taxes; in consideration of which, they were bound to keep watch and ward’ (Hardiman, Hist. Galway (1820) 212 note).
963–84in Birch Cartul. Sax. III. 366 Þonne is æt Farresheafde .xvi. weorc wurðe men, & .viii. iunge men. 1577in 10th Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm. App. v. 447 This indenture, made..betwixt William Halloran, yongman, and..Edmond Ffrench. 1589Puttenham Engl. Poesie i. xxvi. (Arb.) 66 The skreeking and outcry of the young damosell [on the marriage night] feeling the first forces of her stiffe and rigorous young man. c1643in 10th Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm. App. v. 493 The Captaine of the Youngmen. 1799Nelson in Nicolas Disp. (1845) IV. 82 The first act of my command was to name Sidney Smith's First Lieutenant to the death-vacancy of Captain Miller. I have placed two of his young men in Gun-boats. 1858Phytologist Jan. 320 The Windsor-street Young Men's Society. 1862C. C. Robinson Dial. Leeds 199 A Young Men's Mutual Improvement, and all the rest of it, Society. 1863B. A. Heywood Vac. Tour Antipodes 153 A Young Men's Christian Association Room.
†b. A man in the service of, or in attendance upon, a person of high rank or an official: = yeoman 1, 1 b. Obs.
Cf. also youngerman s.v. younger a. 1 c.
1362Langl. P. Pl. A. iii. 207 Emperours..Þorw ȝiftes han ȝonge men to renne and to ride. [Cf. quot. 1377 s.v. Yeoman 1.] 1382Wyclif Acts v. 10 The ȝonge men entrynge founden hir deed, and thei baren out, and birieden to hir hosebonde. c1400Gamelyn 793 He..seide to his ȝong men, dighteþ ȝow ȝare. 1530Palsgr. 291/1 Yongman a servaunt, ualeton. 1541–2Act 33 Hen. VIII, c. 10 §6 Any servantes comonly called yongemen [orig. Yeomen] or gromes.
c. A youth employed by a tradesman, etc.
1751Johnson Rambler No. 116 ⁋11 The term of Young Man, with which I was sometimes honoured, as I carried a parcel to the door of a coach, tortured my imagination. 1836Dickens Sk. Boz, Scenes i, She discovers..that Mr. Todd's young man over the way is..taking down his master's shutters. 1887G. R. Sims Mary Jane's Mem. vi, While the grocer's young man was waiting inside for orders.
3. A lover, a male sweetheart; a fiancé. vulgar.
1851Mayhew Lond. Labour I. 207/2 Treated to an ice by her young man—they seemed as if they were keeping company. 1887G. R. Sims Mary Jane's Mem. iv, And cook she shouted ‘Murder!’ too, and asked us..to spare his life, as it was only her young man.
Hence young-ˈmanhood, † (a) the valour befitting a young man (obs.); (b) the condition of being a young man, early manhood; young-ˈmannish a., resembling, pertaining to, or characteristic of a young man (chiefly in a derogatory sense); hence young-ˈmannishness.
1422Yonge tr. Secr. Secr. v. 134 Ther-as thay hath..stowtly demenet ham-Selfe in grete *yonge-man-hode. 1784R. Bage Barham Downs I. 19 Eight of the first years of my young-man-hood. 1875Swinburne Let. to E. C. Stedman 21 Feb., One must..jump from little-boyhood into young-manhood.
1854C. M. Yonge Heartsease I. ii. xii. 310 He looked more *young-mannish and sentimental than he does now. 1887M. E. Braddon Like & Unlike iii, Father has talked so much of your girlish days and his young mannish days.
1873Furnivall in Biogr. (1911) p. liii, The boyish romanticism or the sharp *youngmanishness of his [sc. Shakspere's] early plays. |