Girl

A girl is a female human from birth through childhood and adolescence to attainment of adulthood when she becomes a woman. The term girl may also be used to mean a young woman, and is often used as a synonym for daughter.

Etymology

The English word girl first appeared during the Middle Ages between 1250 and 1300 CE and came from the Anglo-Saxon words gerle (also spelled girle or gurle). The Anglo-Saxon word gerela meaning dress or clothing item also seems to have been used as a metonym in some sense.

Girl has meant any young unmarried woman since about 1530. Its first noted meaning for sweetheart is 1648. The earliest known appearance of girl-friend is in 1892 and girl next door, meant as a teenaged female or young woman with a kind of wholesome appeal, dates only to 1961.

Usage for adults

The word girl is sometimes used to refer to an adult female, usually a younger one. This usage may be considered derogatory or disrespectful in professional or other formal contexts, just as the term boy can be considered disparaging when applied to an adult man. Hence, this usage is often deprecative. It can also be used deprecatively when used to discriminate against children ("you're just a girl").

Elle

Elle may refer to:

See also

Elle (magazine)

Elle is a worldwide lifestyle magazine of French origin that focuses on fashion, beauty, health, and entertainment.Elle is also the world's best-selling fashion magazine. It was founded by Pierre Lazareff and his wife Hélène Gordon in 1945. The title, in French, means "she" or "her".

History

Elle was founded in France in 1945. In the 1960s, it was considered to "not so much reflect fashion as decree it", with 800,000 loyal readers and a then famous slogan: "Si elle lit, elle lit Elle (If she reads, she reads Elle)". In 1981, Daniel Filipacchi and Jean-Luc Lagardère purchased Hachette magazines, which included the then-struggling Elle. Elle was then launched in the U.S. (News Corporation owned a stake in the US edition until 1988, followed by 25 other foreign editions). The Chinese version of the magazine was published in 1988, and is the only edition which is published twice monthly.

In 2007 the website of Elle was launched.

Among its past editors is Jean-Dominique Bauby, who became known for writing a book after suffering almost total paralysis.