High-Vocabulary Word of the Day

Hobbledehoy

An awkward boy, especially adolescent

Examples:

“Nothing but infantilism — the erotic visions of a hobbledehoy behind the barn.”
— Henry Seidel Canby, “Mr. O’Hara and the Vulgar School”, a Saturday Review of Appointment in Samarra

“The son stayed with the third Professor for one more year, and when he came home again and his father asked, ‘My dimwitted hobbledehoy, what have you learnt?'”
— Lemony Snicket, Lemony Snicket: The Unauthorized Biography

“A man rarely carries his shyness past the hobbledehoy period. Even if his own inward strength does not throw it off, the rubbings of the world generally smooth it down.”
— Jerome K. Jerome, The Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow (1886)

Etymology:
This is a very iffy one, with completely conflicting origins documented here and there. “hob” is a word used elsewhere to refer to a clown or troublemaker, as in hobgoblin. de hey translates as “of the hedge”, used to mean “wild or feral”. These may comprise some of its roots.