Dictionary

puerility en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• /pjʊəˈɹɪl.ə.ti/ (Received-Pronunciation)
• /pjɚˈɹɪl.ə.ti/ (General-American)

Etymology

From Middle English puerilite, from Middle French puérilité and its etymon Latin puerīlitās, from puerīlis (“childish, juvenile”), from puer (“boy”). By surface analysis, puerile + -ity.

Meanings

1. (countable, uncountable) The state, quality, or condition of being childish or puerile.
   • This classification should have led to the discovery and study of remedies which act specifically upon the various textures and tissues of the body, such as the cellular, serous, mucous, parenchymatous, fibrous, gelatinous, &c., but it did not, except in the most imperfect manner—so imperfect, in fact, that most pathologists, despairing of finding such remedies, at one time sank into all the peurilities^([sic – meaning puerilities]) of the "expectant mode" of the French, or the nihilisms of the German. 1863, John C. Peters, F[rederick] G. Snelling, “Section I. Of Medicine as a Science and as an Art; Its Objects and Its Extent.”, in Principles and Practice of Medicine, New York, N.Y.: William Radde, […], →OCLC, page 124:
2. (countable, uncountable) That which is puerile or childish; especially, an expression which is insipid or silly.
   • You treat his opinions (though he never thrusts them on you) about "the Church," and his duty, and the souls of his parishioners, with civil indifference, as much ado about nothing; and his rubrical eccentricities as puerilities. 1857, Charles Kingsley, “The Way to Win Them”, in Two Years Ago, volume I, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Macmillan and Co., →OCLC, page 140:

Forms

Hypernyms

juvenility

Relateds

puerilism

Translations (2)

cmn 幼稚 (Translations) · ru ребячество (Translations)