Crossword clues for puerility
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Puerility \Pu`er*il"i*ty\, n.; pl. Puerilities. [L. puerilitas: cf. F. pu['e]rilit['e].]
The quality of being puerile; childishness; puerileness.
--Sir T. Browne.That which is puerile or childish; especially, an expression which is flat, insipid, or silly.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
late 15c., from Middle French puérilité (15c.), from Latin puerilitatem (nominative puerilitas) "childishness," from puerilis "boyish, youthful; childish, trivial, silly," from puer "child, boy," from PIE *pau- (1) "few, little," with sense extended to "small, young" (cognates: Latin putus "boy," Sanskrit putrah "son, boy," Avestan puthra- "son, child;" see few (adj.)).
Wiktionary
n. 1 The state, quality, or condition of being childish or puerile. 2 That which is puerile or childish; especially, an expression which is insipid or silly.
WordNet
n. the state of a child between infancy and adolescence [syn: childhood]
a property characteristic of a child [syn: childishness]
Usage examples of "puerility".
Puerilities of fancy and monstrosities of passion arbitrarily connected with principles claiming to be eternal truths should be carefully separated, and not the whole be despised and trodden on together.
What I find interesting about the story now is not so much the quaintness and puerility of attitude as the class angle.
The instruction imparted in the high-schools has long since lost its Rationalistic puerilities.
It is a wonderful monument of myths and fancies, profound speculations and ridiculous puerilities, antique 32 Antiq.
There were classic affectations in England, there were masks and mummeries and classic puerilities at court and in noble houses--Elizabeth's court would well have liked to be classical, remarks Guizot--but Shakespeare was not fettered by classic conventionalities, nor did he obey the unities, nor attempt to separate on the stage the tragedy and comedy of life-- "immense and living stage," says the writer I like to quote because he is French, upon which all things are represented, as it were, in their solid form, and in the place which they occupied in a stormy and complicated civilization.
When, therefore, Plato puts into his mouth such paralogisms, such quibbles on words, and sophisms, as a school boy would be ashamed of, we conclude they were the whimsies of Plato's own foggy brain, and acquit Socrates of puerilities so unlike his character.
While wading thro' the whimsies, the puerilities, and unintelligible jargon of this work, I laid it down often to ask myself how it could have been that the world should have so long consented to give reputation to such nonsense as this?
As the hours passed, the woman, with her pudgy features and condescending puerilities, became for him a perfect symbol of middle-class fatuity and the commercial life.