stripling

American  

[strip-ling] / ˈstrɪp lɪŋ /

noun

1. a youth.

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stripling British  

/ ˈstrɪplɪŋ /

noun

1. a lad

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Etymology

Origin of stripling

Middle English word dating back to 1350–1400; strip ², -ling ¹

Explanation

You can use the old-fashioned noun stripling to talk about a teenager, though few people these days will know what you're talking about. Like many old words in English, the -ling in this one clues you up that it's a smaller version of the real thing. Exactly how the strip part applies is lost in the mists of time, but it may have to do with being thin as a strip from lacking the muscular development of full manhood: the word stripling is a somewhat poetic epithet for a youth.

Example Sentences

Not since 1996, when Roy was a stripling of 24, have all 12 required appropriations bills been separately signed into law.

From Washington Post • Feb. 10, 2023

Mbappé’s age suggests he’s a boy, a young stripling with plenty to learn, but anyone who has watched him play will tell you he already looks like a man, in body and temperament.

From The Guardian • Mar. 24, 2017

As a stripling in his late 70s, he shambled convincingly as the 87-year-old Firs in the Taper's 2006 revival of "The Cherry Orchard."

From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 13, 2015

A blind stripling drifts in and out of the novel, a reproach, in part, to the finality and moral guarantees of seeing.

From The New Yorker • Jun. 16, 2014

The knights you have chosen to follow me are stout fellows and bear the command of a stripling with good humor.

From "Ella Enchanted" by Gail Carson Levine