changeling
nounEtymology
The noun is derived from change + -ling (suffix with the sense ‘immature; small’). Sense 6 (“idiot, simpleton”) is from the idea that foolish children had been left by magical creatures (sense 1). The adjective is derived from the noun.
Definitions
In pre-modern European folklore
In pre-modern European folklore: an infant of a magical creature that was secretly exchanged for a human infant. In British, Irish and Scandinavian mythology the exchanged infants were thought to be those of fairies, sprites or trolls; in other places, they were ascribed to demons, devils, or witches.
- [S]he, as her attendant, hath / A louely boy ſtollen, from an Indian king: / She neuer had ſo ſweete a changeling.
- Juſt as a Changeling ſeems below the reſt / Of Men, or rather is a two-legg’d Beaſt, / So theſe Gigantick Souls amaz'd we find / As much above the reſt of human kind.
A person or object (especially when regarded as inferior) secretly exchanged for…
A person or object (especially when regarded as inferior) secretly exchanged for something else.
An infant secretly exchanged with another infant deliberately or by mistake
An infant secretly exchanged with another infant deliberately or by mistake; a swapling.
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An organism which can change shape to mimic others
An organism which can change shape to mimic others; a shape-shifter.
A person apt to change their loyalty or thinking
A person apt to change their loyalty or thinking; a waverer.
- To face the garment of rebellion / With ſome fine colour that may pleaſe the eye / Of fickle changlings and poore diſcontents, / Which gape and rub the elbow at the newes / Of hurly-burly innouation, [...]
- What words are these have fall’n from me? Can calm despair and wild unrest Be tenants of a single breast, Or sorrow such a changeling be?
An idiot, a simpleton.
- They alſo obſerue Lunaticks and changelings, and the Coniurer writeth downe their ſayings in a booke, groueling on the ground, as if he whiſperd to the Deuill to tell him the truth, and ſo expoundeth the letter, as it were by inſpiration.
- We wander in the Fields of Air below: / Changlings and Fooles of Heav'n: and thence ſhut out, / Wildly we roam in diſcontent about: [...]
Changeable, fickle, inconstant, wavering.
- Away thou changeling motley humouriſt, / Leave me, and in this ſtanding wooden cheſt, / Conſorted with theſe few books, let me lye / In priſon, and here be coffin'd, when I dye.
The neighborhood
Vish — recursive loop
No curated loop yet for changeling. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.
sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA