yes, this is an excellent subthread that Paul introduced,
Pejorative uses, but also, we have 'boys will be boys', which is
maybe perjorative but I think applies more to men than boys, and
'boy oh boy", and the Irish 'Boy-o', and the English 'Old Boy,'
which would be an oxymoron for boy as a state of a person, and
"atta boy," 'boys night out', and 'how can I tell if my cat is a
boy or a girl?' and someboyd said here that men were adult
males, leaving out one of the many dimensions of context that
Hans and others keep reminding us of, namely that there are also
adult male lions and ginko trees, and 'good boy', and ....