Word of the Day

: April 1, 2010

puerile

adjective PYUR-ul

What It Means

1 : juvenile

2 : childish, silly

puerile in Context

Though Laura enjoys a good practical joke, she finds some of the gags pulled by her co-workers on April Fool’s Day to be merely puerile.

Did You Know?

"Puerile" may call to mind qualities of youth and immaturity, but the term itself is no spring chicken. On the contrary, it's been around for more than three centuries, and its predecessors in French and Latin, the adjectives "puéril" and "puerilis," respectively, are far older. Those two terms have the same basic meaning as the English word "puerile," and they both trace to the Latin noun "puer," meaning "boy" or "child." Nowadays, "puerile" can describe the acts or utterances of an actual child, but it more often refers (usually with marked disapproval) to occurrences of childishness where adult maturity would be expected or preferred.