colleen

plural colleens · alternative coleen

1. IrelandA girl.
2. IrelandA young single woman.

   Down a boreen green came a sweet colleen \ And she smiled as she passed me by.

   c. 1900, “Star of the County Down (traditional folk song)”

   1 more example

   So here was Timothy McShanus deserting the baked meats, to say nothing of his convenient corner in the buffet, to go out and stare at a red shepherdess with picture books and maizypop to sell. And what kind of a colleen was it that he saw? […] Young as she was—and I supposed her to be about eighteen—her figure would have given her five years more according to our northern ideas; […]

   1906 June–November, Max Pemberton, “The Diamond Ship. […]”, in Cassell’s Magazine, Illustrated, London; Paris; New York, N.Y.; Melbourne, Vic.: Cassell and Company, Limited, →OCLC, page 101, columns 1–2

1. A female given name from English or Irish.

   Her name is spelled Coleen making her "Co" with a hard O and not Colleen by any stretch - I'm suspicious on her authority on the subject.

   2007, Laurie Lindeen, Petal Pusher, Atria Books, →ISBN, page 137