One of the mysteries of the English language finally explained.
A young man.‘he's a mere stripling’
youth, adolescent, youngster, boy, schoolboy, lad, child, teenager, juvenile, minor, junior, young man, whippersnapper, fledglingView synonyms
- ‘Surely, though, there could be no such problem with filming a stripling of a novel, published a mere five years ago?’
- ‘Long ago, when Al was a mere stripling of 83, the Players Club gave him a testimonial.’
- ‘Fast forward almost 21 years, to last Monday, when the Celtic under-21 team took on Kilmarnock's striplings.’
- ‘The police officer, a mere stripling of 35, was called to a nursing home where the woman was visiting a friend.’
- ‘‘I did not know him as a stripling, travelling around Scotland in the back of a bus,’ she says, with a smile.’
Middle English: probably from strip (from the notion of ‘narrowness’, i.e. slimness) + -ling.
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