flightling

English

Etymology 1

From flight (“fleeing”) +‎ -ling. Cognate with West Frisian flechtling (“refugee”), Dutch vluchteling (“refugee”), German Low German Flüchtling (“refugee”), German Flüchtling (“refugee”). Compare also Danish flygtning (“refugee”), Swedish flykting (“refugee”), Norwegian flyktning (“refugee”).

Noun

flightling (plural flightlings)

1. One who flees or takes flight; an escapee, fugitive, or refugee.
   • 1878, Archibald Forbes, The War Correspondence of the "Daily News," 1877:

     We were the witnesses not of a few handsful of casual flightlings, but of the general exodus of the inhabitants of a whole territory.

   • 2018, Fred Moten, Stolen Life:

     Refugees, flightlings, black things, whose dissident passage through understanding is often taken for a kind of lawless freedom.

   • 2018, Kate McNaughton, How I Lose You:

     Her mother, the flightling, fighting her way across an inky sea, washing up on a foreign shore with empty pockets, building a new life in a strange land, with nothing to pass on to her daughter from her home but the sounds of her mother tongue.

Etymology 2

From flight (“flying”) +‎ -ling.

Noun

flightling (plural flightlings)

1. A young or little flyer (person or creature that flies).
   • 2013, Sereena Nightshade, Sweetie-Baby, page 316:

     In that country style place with an abundant garden the lady of the house would put special toast slices, a nutty high-grain variety dried to an ideal texture for birds, out for the collection of flightlings that attended the daily garden feast.

   • 2013, Berlie Doherty, The Starburster Stories, page 84:

     “Very good, flightlings,” Tanta said as she passed them. “Soon you'll be flying. Then you won't be in the baby glade any more.” The flightlings smiled proudly at each other. “Why haven't you got wings?” Tam asked Tanta shyly.