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On 10/16/07, Eamon Graham <robertg@hidden.email> wrote: > Here are some etymologies: > > FRENCH: > > Frankish *wrakjo or *war "vagabond" > b. Lat. garciò, garciònem > Fr. > gars/garçon (masc); old French gars (masc) and garce (fem) < "; also > Prov. gartz, old Prov. guarso/guarzon; Catalan garsò; Port. garção; Sp. > garzón; Breton gwerch "child" Interesting, Montreiano would get garçón. > > PORTUGUESE (in attempted order of increasing age): > > garoto/garota (etymology not found; connected to French gars above?) > menino/menina (etymology not found) > Lat. musteus "new wine" > young, new, fresh (Post Agustus) > Pt. moço/moça > Lat. rapace > rapaz > French gai "happy" > Pt. gaio > gaioto/gaiota Hmm, I think I might go with Portuguese's method here, since the original area the Montreianos come from is far closer to Portugal than Burgos. So... musteus > moço/a rapace > rapaç or I'd probably expect ravaço/a (I like that better, I think I may use that) The terms for the increasing ages of boys and girls (accounting for analogy for the two genders): - Very young children: mocino/a, where -ino/a is the preferred diminutive, like -ito/a is in Spanish in OTL. - Young child: garçón/a or moço/a. The former has an older sense, sort of like pre-teen, the latter is more for children between ages 5 and 10 - Adolescent (16 to 18 or so, but also as late as 29) : ravaço/a The ages are approximate. Mocino can also have a mocking or overly sweet tone, especially to males (such as when English speaking women call boys "sweetie"). Young men often use ravaço as a slang term like "dude" or "man" in modern American culture. "Que pasó, ravaço?" - "What's up, dude/man?"