learnling

English

Etymology

From learn +‎ -ling. Compare West Frisian learling (“pupil”), German Lehrling (“apprentice”), Norwegian lærling (“trainee; apprentice”).

Noun

learnling (plural learnlings)

1. (rare, nonstandard) One who learns; pupil; student; apprentice
   • 1891, William Nicholas Hailmann, Sketches from the History of Education:

     So faulty was his knowledge that to this day impotent learnlings, who have drowned their little souls in printer's ink, find a cheap pleasure in holding up to ridicule the "ignorance," the "lack of system," the "fallacies and errors," of this man who was all heart; smiling contemptuously, too, these impotent learnlings, as if it were more honorable and more praiseworthy to be all head, no matter how diminutive and vapory.

   • 1913, The Harvard Graduates' Magazine, volume 21:

     Perchance in upland pastures there may stray
     Some learnling of the elder fold, to teach [...]