Word of the Day for Thursday April 6, 2006 hobbledehoy

hobbledehoy \HOB-uhl-dee-hoy\, noun:An awkward, gawky young fellow.

• For early on, girls become aware -- as much from their fathers' anguished bellows of "You're not going out dressed like that, Miss" as from the buffoonish reactions of the spotty hobbledehoys at the end-of-term disco -- of the power of clothes to seduce.-- Jane Shilling, "Soft-centred punk", Times (London), October 27, 2000
• His memories, even only reveries, of incomparable women, made me feel like a hulking hobbledehoy.-- Edith Anderson, Love in Exile
• Unfortunately, they have to contend with ignorant hobbledehoys who, on seeing these rows of shingle heaps, feel compelled to jump on them.-- Susan Campbell, "He grows seakale on the seashore", Daily Telegraph, March 27, 1999

The origin of hobbledehoy is unknown, though it perhaps derives from hobble, from the awkward movements of a clumsy adolescent.