sportling

English

Etymology

From sport +‎ -ling.

Noun

sportling (plural sportlings)

1. (poetic, archaic) A little person or creature engaged in sports or in play.
   • 1748, Ambrose Philips, Ode To the Honourable Miss Carteret:

     When again the lambkins play — Pretty sportlings, full of May.

References

• “sportling”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.