- 1
Puerile means childish in a way you find silly and stupid — a joke, an argument, a bit of showing off that is not worthy of a grown person. It is a criticism, almost always. You would not use it about a real small child; the sting is “you are old enough to know better.” It is a formal, word, more at home in essays, reviews, and sharp remarks than in everyday talk. Though actually, calling something “silly” can still be light; puerile is colder, and it talks down.
幼稚的（帶貶義，指不該再這麼孩子氣）
組成From Latin puerīlis (“childish”), from puer (“child, boy”). By the look of the English word: puer + -ile (an ending that often means “of that kind”).
同家族的字
- puerilitythe noun: the quality of being puerile
原始詞典資料2 筆記錄
以下是外部詞典記錄的用法，原文照列，我們還沒有寫成教學內容。上面的說明才是我們自己寫的；有些用法可能上面已經講過了。
puerileadj/ˈpjʊə.ɹaɪl/
- 1
Childish; trifling; silly.
- 1850, Thomas De Quincey, French and English Manners (originally published in Hogg's Instructor The French have been notorious through generations for their puerile affectation of Roman forms, models, and historic precedents.
- From the table he had received the gout; from the alcove a tendency to convulsions; from the grandeeship a pride so vast and puerile that he seldom heard anything that was said to him and talked to the ceiling in a perpetual monologue; from the exile, oceans of boredom, a boredom so persuasive that it was like pain,—he woke up with it and spent the day with it, and it sat by his bed all night watching his sleep.
- 2
Characteristic of, or pertaining to, a boy or boys; compare puellile.
資料來源：英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary（CC BY-SA 4.0）。 原文照列，未經改寫。