lad=boy? / lass=girl?

[Mad-ox]

hi,

Are these words synonyms? In what context can I use the words lad & lass?

eg The boy/girl is running in the street.

Can I replace the words lad & lass with boy & girl?


Madox

[Anglika]

Both lad and lass have rather fallen into disuse, apart from regional dialect. It will look odd to use them now.

[BobK]

But a few idioms persist. Example: 'a bit of a lad' =sexually precocious young man.

b

[Mad-ox]

hi,

I have found the idiom ''a Jack the Lad" = a young man who is very confident in a noisy way, and enjoys going out with male friends, drinking alcohol and trying to attract women.

eg. He used to be a bit of a Jack the Lad - I never thought he'd settle down and get married.


Madox

[BobK]

hi,

I have found the idiom ''a Jack the Lad" = a young man who is very confident in a noisy way, and enjoys going out with male friends, drinking alcohol and trying to attract women.

eg. He used to be a bit of a Jack the Lad - I never thought he'd settle down and get married.


Madox

That phrase is very like 'a bit of a lad'. In fact I've heard them mixed together - 'a bit of a Jack the Lad'. But the common noun 'lad' is, as Anglika said, largely out of use. Since reading her reply, though, I have remembered a couple of more common uses, always in the plural:

'He's out drinking with the lads, as usual on a Friday' [=an unspecified, but habitual, group of men friends]

I thought the lads played well this afternoon. [=a team of male sportsmen. Strangely if they're women they're not 'lasses'.]

'Come on lads - we can do better than this.' [=a team (again), but used as a form of address to all the other team members]

b

[BobK]

...
I thought the lads played well this afternoon. [=a team of male sportsmen. Strangely if they're women they're not 'lasses'.]

...

An exception was the UK team (all Scots) who won the Olympic gold a few years ago. Commentators sometimes referred to them as 'lassies' I think, in an attempt to do two things: refer to their dialect, and avoid PC objections to calling 'sportswomen' 'girls'.

b