sandboy

9.9

A young person who sold sand to spread on floors

noun

Archaic

: chico de arena

After receiving the good news, he was as happy as a sandboy.

Examples

Winning the championship made the team feel as happy as a sandboy.
When he saw his favorite band perform live, he felt as happy as a sandboy.
Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, and you are happy as a sandboy.

Puppet Master III (1992)

Antonyms

sad

∞ 1.0

Feeling unhappy or upset because of something

miserable

416 1.8

Feeling very unhappy or suffering a lot

unhappy

412 1.0

Feeling sad or not pleased about something

Surface Forms

sandboy singular

sandboys plural

Morphology

sandboy = sand + boy (semi-transparent) = sand + boy

The compound is a straightforward combination meaning 'a boy who dealt with or sold sand', which is directly inferable from the component words.

Etymology

Sandboy comes from the simple parts sand and boy and once meant a young man who sold sand people used 'to spread on floors' or for cleaning. One popular story says these boys were very glad when they finished a day of heavy work and could spend their money, so people began to say 'happy as a sandboy' to mean 'very happy'.