sweet summer child

sweet summer child

English

Etymology

As an idiomatic phrase, apparently from the 1996 fantasy novel A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin, although isolated occurrences go back to the 1800s. In the novel, a young boy is called a "sweet summer child" by an old woman, since seasons last for years in the novel's world and he has yet to experience winter. Later popularized by its use in the episode "Lord Snow" (2011) of the television adaptation Game of Thrones.

Noun

sweet summer child (plural sweet summer children)

1. (often sarcastic) Someone who is naive, or who has never experienced hardship.
   • 2015, Christopher Castano, "Out Of Control", The Georgetown Voice (Georgetown University), 19 February 2015, page 10:

     Don't think people have tried to put Mario games in order? Oh sweet summer child.

   • 2019, Dee Dickens, Duct Tape and Daddy Issues: Phone-Sex Worker Tells All, unnumbered page:

     "Starts?" I hear you cry, "How can it get any weirder than that?". Oh, my sweet summer children, what George wants me to do while he licks my feet clean is take pictures and humiliate him.

   • 2019, Jared Rasic, "Film Shorts", Source Weekly, 24 October 2019, page 34:

     It can't be worse than "X-Men: The Last Stand," can it? Oh, sweet summer child. It can always get worse…especially in Hollywood.

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:sweet summer child.

Usage notes

• Most often used in the vocative, as "oh, sweet summer child" or "oh, my sweet summer child."

Synonyms

• ingenue
• innocent
• naif

See also

• wet behind the ears