1. A woman who is young; one in early womanhood.
For the vocative use, see YOUNG a. 1 b.
a. 1100. Voc., in Wr.-Wülcker, 310/9. Puella, mæden, oððe ʓeong, wifman.
c. 1205. Lay., 261. Þeos ȝunge wiman [c. 1275 ȝonge] Iwerð hire mid childe.
c. 1250. Gen. & Ex., 4049. Ðe ȝinge wimmen of ðin lond, Faiȝer on siȝte and softe on hond.
c. 1449. Pecock, Repr., II. xiii. 226. A ȝong womman, which gate myche money to her maistris.
1589. Puttenham, Engl. Poesie, I. xxvi. (Arb.), 67. Such as had tasted the frutes of loue before, (we call them well experienced young women).
1775. Sheridan, Rivals, I. ii. Mrs. Mal. You thought, miss! I don’t know any business you have to think at all—thought does not become a young woman.
1864. Miss Yonge, Trial, vi. Let me tell you, young woman, it is hard on a man who has been at work all day to come home and find a dark house and nobody to speak to.
1887. Blackw. Mag., Dec., 774/2. Hannah More was still a young woman, and also remarkably young for her years, when we thus behold her on the threshold of her fame.
2. A female sweetheart; a fiancée. vulgar.
1858. Househ. Words, 27 March, 338/1. It was assumed that I had fallen in love, had made my offer, and had been accepted by my young woman and her family.
Hence Youngwomanhood, the condition of being a young woman; young women as a class; Youngwomanly a., like a young woman.
1885. R. Buchanan, Matt, iii. [Her change of costume] made her look several years older—in fact, quite young-womanly.
1892. Athenæum, 20 Feb., 240/3. The Girton girl [is] treated as a distinct species of young-womanhood.
