Obs. Forms: 1 yrþling, 2 urþling, 8 earthling. [f. EARTH sb.2 + -LING.] A plowman, cultivator of the soil. Perh. only in OE.; quots. 1200 and 1714 merely give the OE. word in later spelling.
c. 1000. Ælfric, Colloq., in Wr.-Wülcker, 99. Se yrþling us ealle fett.
a. 1200. Fragm. Ælfric’s Gloss. (1838), 2. Urþling.
1714. Fortescue-Aland, Fortescue’s Abs. & Lim. Mon., 79. [The Anglo-Saxon] Eorthling, is a Husbandman, or Earthling.
