Dictionary

hoydenism en · NOUN

Etymology

From hoyden + -ism.

Meanings

1. (countable, uncountable) The behaviour of a hoyden.
   • After a decade of hoydenism, she developed a strategy called “The Four Man Plan,” or “4MP.” 2007 October 14, Liesl Schillinger, “It Adds Up to Love (Check Your Math)”, in New York Times:
   • 1899, Mary A. Ward, Life and works of the sisters Brontë, Introduction to Jane Eyre And there can be no doubt that there was in Miss Bronte a curious vein of recklessness, roughness, one might also say - hoydenism - that exists side by side with an exquisite delicacy and a true dignity, and is none the less Irish and Celtic for that.

Forms