Why Do We Sometimes Call Kids Little Shavers?

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, this is Natalie. How are you?

I am calling from southern Indiana, actually in the county of Du Bois County.

Oh, yeah.

Welcome to the show.

Over there in the West, yeah.

What’s up?

So what I was calling you about is some girlfriends and I were messaging on, like, a Facebook messenger, and they were talking about all their kids and things, and I had made a comment saying, hey, you know, your little shavers sure are cute.

And one of them named Ashley, there was like total silence as soon as I had texted that. And she’s like, I don’t understand what you’re talking about. I’ve never heard that.

I’m like, oh, yeah, mom and dad has always referred to little kids as little shavers. So I thought, well, this would be an excellent time to call in and get the meaning behind that.

So when you say little shavers, you’re referring to particularly little kids or what?

Yes, maybe people that are like under 8 to 10 years old.

Mm—

Yeah, it’s a fairly common expression. And we can tell you off the bat that it doesn’t have to do with like shavings of wood or, you know, chip off the old block.

It actually goes back to the 1500s where the word shaver referred to a man, somebody who was old enough to shave with a razor. And over time, that word has taken on different meanings.

It’s evolved in its meaning. It later meant just sort of a fellow or a chap. And then it came to apply to usually young boys, but sometimes girls.

And words sometimes do that. You know, the word girl itself, hundreds of years ago, could mean either a little boy or a little girl. It was generic.

And so little shavers are just little people.

That is so interesting.

Yeah, so around the 1600s, you can see in the historical record that some of the references to little shaver were a joke, where they were just joking that these boys who didn’t shave yet and had these smooth faces were little shavers kind of elbowing each other in the ribs, referring to these kids as if they were actually shaving and they weren’t yet.

The way that you might refer to a kid now as big man, and there he is about two feet tall, right?

Right.

Yeah. Or the way that in some cultures they refer to little girls and little boys as mama and papa or mommy and papi, right? They’re neither mama and papa nor mommy and papi, right?

Yeah.

Yeah, so it started out just being applied to a man, somebody of age who’s actually shaving, and then was later applied ironically to little kids.

Wonderful.

Thank you for the explanation, and keep up the good work. We enjoy listening to you guys.

Oh, great.

Take care now.

Thanks, Natalie.

Bye-bye.

Bye-bye.

Enjoy your small day with the little shavers.

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