A very common term of address throughout the English-speaking world, in modern times as well as in the past. The vocative is extensively used in Shakespeare’s plays, for instance, normally to young men, occasionally to older men and sometimes to...

A boy knows not fire till it burns him. (Hausan) A lazy boy and a warm bed are difficult to part. (Danish) Boys will be boys and girls will be girls. (English) Boys will become men, and then men boys. (American) Do not entrust a sword to a boy. (Roman)...

A popular vocative in the seventeenth century, but one which went out of fashion soon afterwards. The word had long been in use, at first meaning a boy, then a young male servant, and finally a rogue. Shakespeare used ‘knave’ vocatively in...

He is no small knave who knows a great one. (Danish) Once a knave, always a knave. (English) The hatred of knaves is to be preferred to their company....

Four boys on the West Bank. A boy is a young male human (usually child or adolescent), as contrasted to its female counterpart, which is called a girl; thus youth consists of 'boys and girls'. The term "boy" is primarily used to indicate biological sex...