girl

girl

is still used with reference to younger adult women, despite pressure from the feminist movement, especially when contrasted with corresponding male terms such as boy, lad, or guy. Its wider application has however diminished with the disappearance of those social institutions with which the word has been associated historically, for example the employment of female domestic servants (who were called girls whatever their age). Girl instead of woman remains accepted usage in several contexts: in referring to a regular female companion as a girl or girlfriend; in titles of books and films (e.g. Kingsley Amis's Take a Girl Like You, 1960, Helen Gurley Brown's Sex and the Single Girl, 1962, and Mary Wesley's Not That Sort of Girl, 1987), in the lyrics of popular songs (e.g. Diamonds are a girl's best friend, Leo Robin, 1949; Thank you girl, Lennon & McCartney, 1964), in the expressions glamour girl, cover girl, page three girl, it girl (a young woman socialite), etc., and in the plural use of the girls to refer to a group of young women friends, analogous to the boys. In general use, however, woman or young woman are often to be preferred, especially when contrasted with man. See lady, woman.