• SuperNovaStar@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        11 hours ago

        Is english your first language?

        “Girls” can mean children, but is frequently used for women of any age as a diminutive. Same goes for “boys.”

        However, “children” almost exclusively refers to someone underage.

        • n0xy [n0xy/n0xy‘s]@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          10 hours ago

          It is not, but the same thing occurs in my mother tongue. I’m just salty that there is a gender neutral word, but only the gendered versions got their meanings expanded

          edit: now that I think about it, the translation for boy/girl is acceptable in less places and I don’t think we use it in compound words

          • stray@pawb.social
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            4 hours ago

            I think it doesn’t work because “child” is gender-neutral referring to age, rather than referring to a specific gender. What we need is a word for enby kids.