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I'm looking for an archaic replacement for the word girl ?

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thanks @martha for the tags – n0nChun Mar 17 '11 at 20:02

4 Answers

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You could call her a maiden or maid or lass.

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sweet, thanks :) – n0nChun Mar 17 '11 at 18:02
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Don't replace “girl”, just because it doesn't sound like you'd expect early ME to sound. In fact, “girl” has been in use since the Middle English period, which is much earlier than what you're going for.

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Yes, but it had a different meaning - it meant any child. See etymonline.com/index.php?term=girl&allowed_in_frame=0 – neil Sep 9 '11 at 10:18
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I would go with damsel, or maybe a wench (but it can also be associated with “prostitute”, so…).

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up vote 3 down vote

Gel, but it's lower class talk. (hard G)

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Really? That's lower class? As an AmE speaker, it sounds kinda 'upstairs'. – Mitch Apr 25 '11 at 0:49
Has that anything to do with gal? – nico Apr 8 '12 at 8:24
It's probably a vowel shift that became formalized. But I'll leave it to the linguists to debate. – Chris Cudmore Apr 9 '12 at 13:24

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