Schoolgirl

How to spell schoolgirl

10 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce schoolgirl

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does schoolgirl mean?

1. nounA girl who is attending school.

Schoolgirl in a sentence

• Every schoolgirl in the class wore the same grey uniform.

• The photograph showed his mother as a young schoolgirl in the 1950s.

Where does schoolgirl come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word is a transparent compound of two older English elements. The first part, 'school', came into Old English as 'scol' from the Latin 'schola', which itself was borrowed from the Greek 'skhole'; remarkably, that Greek word originally meant 'leisure' or 'free time', because in the ancient world serious discussion and learning were activities for those with spare time. The second part, 'girl', appeared in Middle English as 'gyrle' and at first meant simply a young child of either sex before narrowing to mean a female child. The two words were joined to form 'schoolgirl' in the early modern period, with the term well established in English by the 1600s and 1700s. Because the spelling keeps both whole words intact, the trap is simply remembering the doubled 'o' of 'school' rather than any hidden letters.

How the word is built

• school (place of learning)
• girl (young female)