Girlfriend
nounA woman or girl with whom someone has a romantic relationship.
How to spell girlfriend
10 letters · 2 syllables
How to pronounce girlfriend
Say the part in capitals loudest.
What does girlfriend mean?
- nounA woman or girl with whom someone has a romantic relationship.
- nounA woman's close female friend, with no romantic implication.
Girlfriend in a sentence
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He introduced his girlfriend to his parents over dinner.
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She met an old girlfriend from college for coffee on Saturday.
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They had been dating for a year before she became his girlfriend.
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Every Thursday she goes to a book club with her girlfriend from the neighbourhood.
Where does girlfriend come from?
Language of origin: Germanic
This word is a transparent compound of two old English elements joined together. 'Girl' appeared in Middle English around the 1300s, originally meaning any young child of either sex before it narrowed to mean a young female; its ultimate roots are uncertain, though it is likely Germanic. 'Friend' is firmly native English, descending from Old English 'freond', a word tied to the verb 'freon', meaning 'to love', and related to Germanic words for loving and favouring. The two were first written as separate words and then as the closed compound 'girlfriend', which spread in American English during the late 1800s to mean a female companion, and later specifically a romantic partner. The spelling itself rarely trips people, but writers sometimes pause over whether to keep the silent letters and the 'ie' in 'friend' in the right order.
How the word is built
- girl (young female)
- friend (companion); a closed compound noun
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