Sekirov Dictionary

changeling

UK /ˈtʃeɪn(d)ʒlɪŋ/US /ˈt͡ʃeɪnd͡ʒlɪŋ/

noun 6
adjective 1
forms 3

noun6

•
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.
- [S]he, as her attendant, hath / A louely boy stollen, from an Indian king: / She neuer had so sweete a changeling. — 1595
A person or object (especially when regarded as inferior) secretly exchanged for something else.
(rare) An infant secretly exchanged with another infant deliberately or by mistake; a swapling.
An organism which can change shape to mimic others; a shape-shifter.
•
(no longer used) A person apt to change their loyalty or thinking; a waverer.
- 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? — 1850
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(no longer used) An idiot, a simpleton.
- We wander in the Fields of Air below: / Changlings and Fooles of Heav'n: and thence shut out, / Wildly we roam in discontent about: […] — 1669

adjective1

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(no longer used, rare) Changeable, fickle, inconstant, wavering.
- 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. — 1719

forms

changelings · more changeling · most changeling

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