gurl

English

Etymology 1

Variant spelling of girl.

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ɡɝl/, /ɡʊɹ(ə)l/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ɡɜːl/

• Audio (US, [ɡɝːɫ]):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)l
• Homophone: girl

Noun

gurl (plural gurls)

1. (informal, nonstandard or eye dialect) Alternative form of girl.
   • 2012, Krystina V, A Diva's love Affair, →ISBN, page 22:

     Damn white gurl Thought you was A1 Yet your existence a none

   • 1920, Zane Grey, The U.P. Trail:

     An' Lee went closer to where the gurl was waitin'. His party follered an' I follered too.... Jest whin the moosic sthopped an' the gurl looked up—thin she seen Lee.

   • 2013, Karen L. Kilcup, Angela Sorby, Over the River and Through the Wood, →ISBN:

     All gurl's good fur—jist To dust an' sweep, an' scold, An' sew on buttons what yo mus't Sewin' on last week. Wush't Iwuz a boy!

2. (LGBTQ slang) Term of address between cis gay men or transgender women.
3. (LGBTQ) A trans girl or woman.
   • 2016, Cindy I-Fen Cheng, The Routledge Handbook of Asian American Studies:

     For example, “queer” would include self-identified lesbians and gays who also have sex with the “opposite sex,” sexual practices and relationships that include kink, s/m, polyamory, and pansexuality, gender play and fuck including femmes and those feminine of center, butches and those masculine of center, queens, femboys, gurls, bois, sissies, tomboys, crossdressers, drag queens and kings, and genderfluid people.

Derived terms

• Miss Gurl

 

See also

• girl
• boi

Etymology 2

From Middle English gurlen (“to growl, rumble”).

Verb

gurl (third-person singular simple present gurls, present participle gurling, simple past and past participle gurled)

1. (Scotland, Ireland) To growl or snarl.
   • 1834, Samuel Lover, Legends and Stories of Ireland:

     The poor little doctor, thus rudely and suddenly aroused from his tipsy sleep, looked excessively bewildered when he opened his eyes, and met the glare of ferocious delight that Darby Kelleher cast upon him, and he gurled out, “What's the matter?” as well as the grip of Darby's hand upon his throat would permit him.

   • 1845, Alexander Wilson, Poetical Works: With an Extended Memoir of His Life and Writings:

     “Weel may ye mind, yon night sae black, Whan fearfu' winds loud gurled, And mony a lum dang down—and stack, Heigh i' the air up swirled, Alangst yon brae, ye clam, and stack,

Yola

Etymology

From Middle English gurle.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɡorl/

Noun

gurl (plural gurlès)

1. child, girl

Derived terms

• gurlish

References

• Jacob Poole (d. 1827) (before 1828) William Barnes, editor, A Glossary, With some Pieces of Verse, of the old Dialect of the English Colony in the Baronies of Forth and Bargy, County of Wexford, Ireland, London: J. Russell Smith, published 1867, page 43