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changeling

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

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WOTD – 15 December 2020

Etymology

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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).[1]

The adjective is derived from the noun.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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changeling (plural changelings)

  1. (European folklore, also figurative) 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.
    Synonyms: auf, oaf, (both obsolete) swapling
    • [c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, A Midsommer Nights Dreame. […] (First Quarto), London: […] [Richard Bradock] for Thomas Fisher, […], published 1600, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i]:
      [S]he, as her attendant, hath / A louely boy ſtollen, from an Indian king: / She neuer had ſo ſweete a changeling.
      Used here to refer to the human infant taken by the magical creature, rather than the infant left behind.]
    • 1638, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], “Symptomes or Signes of Love Melancholy, in Body, Minde, Good, Bad, &c.”, in The Anatomy of Melancholy. […], 5th edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] [Robert Young, Miles Flesher, and Leonard Lichfield and William Turner] for Henry Cripps, →OCLC, partition 3, section 2, member 3, subsection 1, page 515:
      Every Lover admires his miſtris, though ſhee be very deformed of her ſelfe, [...] her feet ſtinke, ſhee breed lice, a meere changeling, a very monſter, [...]: if he loue her once, he admires her for all this, he takes no notice of any ſuch errors, or imperfections of body or minde.
    • 1709, Earl of Murlgrave [i.e., John Sheffield, 1st Duke of Buckingham and Normanby, formerly Earl of Mulgrave], An Essay on Poetry, London: […] H. Hills, […], →OCLC, page 15:
      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.
    • 1828, Thomas Keightley, The Fairy Mythology, volume I, London: William Harrison Ainsworth, page 263:
      Nothing will induce parents to show any attention to a child that they suspect of being a changeling.
    • 1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 298:
      It was easy enough to see that the child was a changeling, for it wasn't like other children at all it screamed and cried, as if a knife stuck in it, and it wheezed and hit about with its arms like a huldre-cat, and was as ugly as sin.
    • 1961, Muriel Saint Clare Byrne, Elizabethan Life in Town and Country, 8th edition, London: Methuen & Co., →OCLC, page 285:
      His nurse had told him all about changelings, and how the little people would always try to steal a beautiful human child out of its cradle and put in its stead one of their own ailing, puking brats [...]
  2. (by extension) A person or object (especially when regarded as inferior) secretly exchanged for something else.
    • 1717, [John Lewis], A Few English Notes on a Late Sermon Preached before the Sons of the Clergy by Dr. [Thomas] Bisse, Intended to Vindicate the English Reformation from the Charge of Sacrilege, Fraud, &c. […], London: […] James Knapton, […]; and sold by John Morphew, […], →OCLC, page 15:
      When I firſt read Mr. Walker’s Circular Letter to the Arch-deacons, I fancied he intended to give us an Account of thoſe worthy Men, [...] But after about ten Years going with this Work, and that the Time of its Birth was come, I ſoon found it to be a perfect Changeling. Inſtead of what I expected it to be, I ſaw a huge Heap of the moſt Heterogeneous Characters, [...] a great many of them much more deſerving to have their Names blotted out, than their Memory to be preſerved.
  3. (by extension, informal, rare) An infant secretly exchanged with another infant deliberately or by mistake; a swapling.
  4. (fantasy, science fiction) An organism which can change shape to mimic others; a shape-shifter.
    Synonyms: see Thesaurus:shape-shifter
  5. (archaic, also figurative) A person apt to change their loyalty or thinking; a waverer.
    Synonym: turncoat
    • c. 1597 (date written), [William Shakespeare], The History of Henrie the Fourth; […], quarto edition, London: […] P[eter] S[hort] for Andrew Wise, […], published 1598, →OCLC, [Act V, scene i]:
      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, [...]
    • 1760, [William] Kenrick, Falstaff’s Wedding: A Comedy. […], London: […] J. Wilkie, [...], →OCLC, act II, scene vi, page 28:
      Fal[staff]. [...] If you will lodge with me in Eaſtcheap, you ſhall ſee the thouſand pound fairly ſpent in ſack: you ſhall ſhare with me to the utmoſt farthing. But for dry reſtitution, I have not been accustom'd to it of many years. You would not have me a changeling at this time of day, I hope, Maſter Shallow. / Shal[low]. Changeling! no, Sir John, thou art no changeling; but, depend on it, I will not put up with this wrong. [...] I will have my money; depend on't I will have my money.
    • 1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, Canto XVI, page 26:
      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?
  6. (obsolete) An idiot, a simpleton.
    Synonyms: see Thesaurus:idiot
    • 1622, John Rawlins, The Famovs and Wonderfvll Recoverie of a Ship of Bristoll, Called the Exchange, from the Turkish Pirates of Argier. […]‎[1], London: […] [Eliot’s Court Press] for Nathaniel Butter, […], →OCLC:
      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.
    • 1669 June (first performance), John Dryden, Tyrannick Love, or, The Royal Martyr. […], London: […] H[enry] Herringman, […], published 1670, →OCLC, Act IV, scene i, page 34:
      We wander in the Fields of Air below: / Changlings and Fooles of Heav'n: and thence ſhut out, / Wildly we roam in diſcontent about: [...]
    • 1740, Erasmus, “A Panegyrick upon Folly, Declamation-wise”, in W. Kennet [i.e., White Kennett], transl., The Praise of Folly. Made English from the Latin of Erasmus. […], 6th edition, London: […] R[obert] Dodsley, […], →OCLC, page 59:
      [C]an there be any one Sort of Men that enjoy themſelves better than thoſe which we call Idiots, Changelings, Fools, and Naturals? It may perhaps ſound harſh, but upon due Conſideration it will be found abundantly true, that theſe Perſons in all Circumſtances fare beſt, and live moſt comfortably: [...]

Translations

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Adjective

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changeling (comparative more changeling, superlative most changeling)

  1. (archaic, rare) Changeable, fickle, inconstant, wavering.
    Synonyms: see Thesaurus:changeable
    • 1719, John Donne, “Satyre I”, in Poems on Several Occasions. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, and sold by William Taylor […], →OCLC, page 107:
      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.
      In Donne’s Poems (1st edition, 1633), page 325, the word fondling is used instead of changeling.

See also

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References

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  1. ^ “changeling, n. and adj.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, June 2017; “changeling, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

Further reading

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