girlishness

1 5.1

A way of behaving or looking that seems young and playful like a girl

noun
/ˈɡɪr.lɪʃ.nəs/

: feminidad

"Momoko was silent for a while, intently observing Saneko's face and the girlishness it still so largely retained."

Examples

I sat upright on a towel in the complicated bathing suit I had painstakingly chosen to cover me up, camouflage my shape, avoid the indignity of attempted girlishness, but not totally capitulate to advanced middle age.

Fiction book (1991)
No, there's a girlishness happening.

Boomerang (1992)
There was something else that she noticed: a girlishness, almost a flirtatiousness.

Fiction book (1996)
Mom-mmeee! came a little girl's voice, consciously accentuating its little girlishness.

Fiction book (1995)
She was a compelling mixture of girlishness, coquettishness, worldly wisdom, and rascalry.

Fiction book (1990)
Her girlishness came through in the way she laughed and twirled her hair around her finger.
The actress's girlishness was evident in her playful demeanor during the interview.
Despite her age, she still embraced a certain girlishness that made her charming and endearing.

Synonyms

girliness

vsgirlishness

1 4.1

Style or behavior people connect with girls, like pink clothes

is the same quality but emphasizes being specifically youthful rather than broadly feminine

Antonyms

masculinity

43 4.1

Qualities and behaviors people associate with being a man

How Girly

girlishness

1 5.1

femininity

29 3.4

Surface Forms

girlishness singular

girlishnesses plural

Morphology

girlishness = girlish (transparent) = girl + ish + ness

Formed by adding the productive noun-forming suffix '-ness' to the adjective 'girlish', preserving the adjective's meaning.

Etymology

The word girlishness comes from girl plus the endings -ish ('like') and -ness ('state'). You see the same -ish in words like boyish and childish, and girlishness simply means the 'state of being like a girl', in how someone looks or behaves.