Boys will be boys

Posted by ESC on September 19, 2002

In Reply to: Who, what, where, when, why... posted by jim on September 19, 2002

: Could you please tell me where the phrase "boys will be boys" originated? Thank you

BOYS WILL BE BOYS - "That's the way it is; there's no help for it. The remark of a parent whose son has been caught breaking windows, upending trash cans, throwing snowballs at car windows and whatever else boys might do. Boys have been boys for a long time, as indicated by similar expressions appearing in print as early as 1589. A few years later Thomas Deloney, in 'A Gentle Craft,' made the indictment more general: 'Youth will be youth.'" From The Dictionary of Cliches by James Rogers (Ballantine Books, New York, 1985).