Portrait of Boy. A boy is a young male human, usually a child or adolescent. When he becomes an adult, he is described as a man. The term can be joined with a variety of other words to form compound words. The word boy comes from Middle English boi, boye, related to other Germanic words for boy, namely East Frisian boi and West Frisian boai. The root is also found in Norwegian dialectal boa, and, through a reduplicated variant * bo-bo-, in Old Norse bófi, Dutch boef knave, rogue, German Bube. Furthermore, the word may be related to Boia, an Anglo-Saxon personal name. Historically, in the United States and South Africa,boy was not only a neutral term for domestics but also a disparaging term towards men of color; the term implied a subservient status. The use of the term boy to describe men of color has not always been used as an insult, however; for example, Thomas Branch, an early African-American Seventh-day Adventist missionary to Nyassaland referred to the native students as boys: There is one way by which we judge many of our present boys to be quite different from some of those who were here long ago: those that are married have their wives here with them, and build their own houses, and all are busy making their gardens. I have told all the boys that if they wished to stay here and learn, those that had wives must bring them. This is having a good effect on them. They stay longer, and are more attentive to their work and their studies. Multiple politicians-including New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and former Kentucky Congressman Geoff Davis-have been criticized publicly for referring to a black man as boy. During an event promoting the 2017 boxing bout between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Conor McGregor, the latter told the former to dance for me, boy. The remarks led several boxers-including Mayweather and Andre Ward-as well as multiple commentators to accuse McGregor of racism. Some boys defy traditional gender expectations. Gender-expansive and transgender boys can face bullying and pressure to conform to traditional expectations. Some intersex children and some transgender children who were assigned female at birth may self-identify as boys.