Dr. Hurlbutt ponders a peculiar suffix

Posted on Monday, February 9, 2009, at 9:11 am, by Dr. Allardyce Hurlbutt.

Some years ago, a non-native speaker asked me about the English suffix ‑ling, as in gosling or hireling. Her inquiry inspired a brief but enjoyable quest to compile a list of examples of this rather peculiar form, which has after all given us such fine words as princeling, hatchling, and earthling. The better to amuse myself, I have now reconstructed that list, expanded it, and researched the matter properly through Archelaus’s office copy of the Oxford English Dictionary (OED).

The OED lovingly devotes approximately seven column-inches of abstruse detail to -ling, informing us that it is a suffix of Germanic origin and forms nouns from other nouns, as well as from adjectives, verbs, and even adverbs. The OED distinguishes two uses. The first dates back to Old English and involves no more than a very general connection to the underlying word. For -ling words formed from nouns, the OED accordingly provides the following blanket definition: “a person or thing belonging to or concerned with” whatever is denoted by the underlying noun. The Old English ierð (plowing) thus yielded ierðling (plowman). Similarly, for words formed from adjectives, the OED provides the following definition: “a person or thing that has the quality denoted by” the underlying adjective. The Old English déore (dear) thus yielded déorling (darling). New words continued to form this way in Middle and early modern English, although by the 16th century the ones denoting people were taking on decidedly pejorative connotations — the most delightful example perhaps being the now archaic shaveling, a widespread term of contempt for a tonsured cleric during the 16th and 17th centuries.

The second use, according to the OED, was to form a diminutive. Old Norse had employed the same suffix to denote the young of animals, but conclusive evidence that English was doing so, too, does not survive until the 14th century, when stray mentions of codling (i.e., a small or young cod) and wolfling appear in the written record. In the 15th century, examples of the more familiar gosling and duckling appear. The OED notes that the earliest spellings of gosling suggest the direct influence of Old Norse, despite the lapse of time. In any case, these words inspired a great many analogous diminutive uses in the 16th century and afterwards. Those which applied to people were almost always derogatory.

What follows is a list of -ling words, which I have broken up into somewhat arbitrary categories of my own. Dates in brackets refer to the earliest examples documented by the OED.

First up are straightforward diminutives, mostly for animals or plants. Several of these words were not invented until the 19th century, which seems to be about as late as the suffix remained productive. Very few remain in common use today.

bratling [1652]: a little brat, infant;
catling [c. 1630]: a small cat, kitten;
chickling [1755]: a tiny chick;
cockling [1580]: a young cock or cockerel (also figurative);
codling [1314]: a small or young cod;
duckling [c. 1440]: a young duck;
fishling [1884]: a small or young fish;
frogling [1742]: a small frog, tadpole;
gnatling [1614]: a small gnat (also figurative);
goatling [1870]: a young goat (adopted in 1883 by the British Goat Society to signify goats between 12 and 24 months);
gosling [c. 1425]: a young goose;
mousling [1832]: a small or young mouse;
pigling [1713]: a small or young pig, sucking-pig (the now more familiar piglet is not documented until 1883);
plantling [1766]: a small or young plant, plantlet;
porkling [1570]: a small or young pig;
ratling [1882]: a small rat;
rootling [1706]: a small root, rootlet;
streamling [1598]: a small stream, streamlet;
townling [1887]: a small town (also a town-bred person);
troutling [1739]: a small or tiny trout;
wolfling [1300s]: a small or young wolf (also figurative);
yeanling [1637]: a young lamb or kid (also figurative).

To this group I should perhaps add deviling [1575], meaning a young devil, imp, or mischievous little creature. The OED professes uncertainty as to whether the correct derivation is devil + -ling or devil + -ing, “the suffixes being here confounded.” In this particular meaning, however, the -ing suffix does not seem apposite.

Next are young people, animals, or plants considered by their stage of development. Surprisingly, almost all of these words remain in use.

fingerling [1705]: a small or young fish (i.e., one the size of a finger; in the 15th century, fingerling had meant instead one of the fingers of a glove);
fledgling [1846]: a young bird just fledged (now also figurative);
hatchling [1899]: a newly hatched fish or bird;
monthling [1804]: a child whose age is counted in months;
nestling [1399] a bird too young to leave the nest;
nursling [1557]: a nursing infant or young animal (also figurative);
sapling [1415]: a young tree;
seedling [1660]: a young plant raised from seed;
stripling [1398]: a youth just passing from boyhood to manhood (i.e., when still as slender as a strip);
suckling [c. 1440]: a nursing infant or young animal;
weanling [1532-33]: a newly weaned child or animal;
yearling [1465]: an animal between 12 and 24 months.

Then there are these two marvelously peculiar, specialized words for animals.

cageling [1859]: a pet bird kept in a cage;
fatling [1849]: a young animal fattened for slaughter.

The words in the following group all derive from verbs. All have negative, or at least unfortunate connotations.

changeling [1584]: a child secretly substituted for another in infancy (although the word also used to mean a changeable, fickle, waivering person);
cringeling [1693]: a cringing creature;
fosterling [c. 1000]: a foster-child;
foundling [1300]: an abandoned infant, found by someone (also figurative);
scatterling [1590]: a wanderer, vagabond, or vagrant;
starveling [1546]: a starved person or animal.

The words in the next group come mostly from adjectives. The OED describes two of the exceptions, fleshling and worldling, as deriving from the nouns flesh and world, but their sense is the same as if they had derived from the adjectives fleshly and worldly, so I am including them here. The third exception, underling, is adverbial in origin.

darling [c. 888]: someone held dear;
firstling [1535]: the first of something, first-born;
fleshling [1548]: a fleshly-minded person;
sickling [1834]: a sickly person;
softling [1547]: an effeminate or unmanly person, a weakling;
strayling [1838]: a stray person or thing;
tenderling [1547]: a delicate or effeminate person or creature; a person of tender years;
tireling [1590]: a tired person or animal;
underling [1175]: a subordinate;
vainling [1615]: a vain or vainglorious person;
weakling [1526]: someone of weak constitution or character (originally, an effeminate or unmanly person);
wildling [1840]: a wild person, animal, or plant;
worldling [1549]: a worldly-minded person;
youngling [c. 900]: young person, animal, or plant.

All the words in the following group derive from nouns, and all but one are contemptuous.

courtling [1599]: a courtier, creature of the court;
dukeling [1634]: a petty duke (though also used for a duke’s child);
godling [1500]: a minor god;
hireling [1535]: someone who works for hire (while found in Old English, without the negative connotations, this word disappeared in Middle English, only to be reinvented in the 16th century);
houseling [1598]: a stay-at-home;
kingling [1598]: a petty king (though less contemptuous than kinglet);
lordling [1275]: a young, petty, or insignificant lord;
popeling [1561]: a papist;
priestling [1629]: a young, petty, or insignificant priest;
princeling [1618]: a young, petty, or insignificant prince;
shaveling [1529]: a tonsured ecclesiastic;
shepherdling [1598]: a young or little shepherd (seemingly without derogatory connotations);
squireling [1682]: a young, petty, or insignificant squire, squirelet;
thumbling [1867]: a diminutive creature, dwarf, or pigmy (i.e., supposedly the size of a thumb).

A few miscellaneous words remain, each of which requires a little extra explication.

Sibling [c. 1000] dates back to Old English (when it meant “kinsman”) and derives from the adjective sib (“related by blood”). The word passed out of use before the pejorative sense of -ling began to take hold in the 16th century. It is familiar to us today, however, because it was revived at the turn of the 20th century to provide a generic term for those having the same parents, i.e., either brothers or sisters.

Starling [1050] also dates to Old English and resulted from adding the ‑ling suffix to stare (another word for this kind of bird). The OED admits the possibility that the suffix may in this case have had a diminutive sense, but there is no way to know for certain.

Groundling [1601] is best known for its use in Shakespeare’s time to denote low-ranking spectators at the theater, who frequented the “ground” or pit. At the same time, however, the word denoted various small, bottom-dwelling fish such as gudgeon and loach, while in the 19th century its meaning expanded to include plants and animals that live close to the ground.

Earthling [1593] was both a neutral word, meaning an inhabitant of the Earth, and a derogatory one, denoting someone who was considered too earthly in outlook. Assisted by the equivocal flavor of the -ling suffix, 20th-century science fiction writers gave earthling new, clumsy, and humorous connotations by placing it in the mouths of alien invaders.

Halfling [1794] historically meant a half-grown person or stripling. J. R. R. Tolkien’s use of the term for his race of hobbits has given the word a new lease on life, at least among gamers.

Finally, certain 19th-century authors used the -ling suffix to invent nonce words, some of which are simply too peculiar to omit.