bantling

Definition

An infant or young child.

Etymology

Uncertain. Perhaps from band(s) (“swaddling clothes”) + -ling, or a modification of German Bänkling (“bastard-child”), equivalent to bench + -ling.

Example Sentences

• "And I even question whether any tender virgin, who was accidentally and unaccountably enriched with a bantling, would save her character at parlour fire-sides and evening tea-parties, by ascribing the phenomenon to a swan, a shower of gold, or a river god."
• ""You!--half-grown, venison-hunting bantling!...""
• ""As if he'd let a cow-handed bantling like you handle them," Cecily muttered. "Children!" Meredyth protested, her face flushing. "What must Lord Englemere think, to hear you brangle so?""