appended to sbs., adjs., vb. stems, and (rarely) advs., to form sbs., is a Com. Teut. formative (OE., OS., OHG. -ling, ON. -ling-r, Goth. -ligg-s in gadiliggs). It doubtless arose from the addition of the suffix -iŋgo-z -ING3 to noun-stems formed with the suffix -ilo- (-EL1, -LE 1), but in all the historical Teut. langs. it has the character of a simple suffix.
1. In OE., -ling added to sbs. forms sbs. with the general sense ‘a person or thing belonging to or concerned with (what is denoted by the primary sb.), as hýrling hireling, ierðling ploughman (f. ierð ploughing), rǽpling prisoner (f. ráp rope). The derivatives from adjs. have the sense ‘a person or thing that has the quality denoted by the adj.,’ e.g., déorling darling, efenling an equal, feorðling quarter, farthing, ʓeongling youngling, ʓesibling, sibling kinsman; similarly from an adv., underling subordinate. One or two names of birds have this suffix in OE., as swertling ? some black bird (? f. sweart black), stærling starling; here it may possibly have a diminutive force (see 2 below).
In ME. and mod.E. the suffix continued to be freely employed with the same function as in OE.; examples are atterling, deathling, fatling, firstling, grayling, nestling, nursling, sapling, suckling. The personal designations in -ling are now always used in a contemptuous or unfavorable sense (though this implication was not fully established before the 17th c.), as courtling, earthling, groundling, † popeling (= papist), vainling, worldling. On the analogy of words like nursling, where the grammatical character of the initial element is ambiguous, a few sbs. in -ling have been formed on vb.-stems (taken in passive sense), being personal designations of contemptuous import, such as shaveling, starveling; of similar origin is stripling, though it has lost its primary derisive sense.
The suffix is no longer productive in the uses above explained.
2. In ON. the suffix had a diminutive force, of which there are only slight traces in the other Teut. langs. (cf. OE. stærling mentioned above, and G. sperling sparrow); chiefly in words denoting the young of animals, as gǽsling-r gosling, ketling-r kitten, kiðlin-gr young kid, † ‘kidling,’ but also in a few other words, as bœkling-r booklet, vetling-r glove, yrmling-r little worm. In Eng. the earliest certain instance of this use appears to be codling, recorded c. 1314 (kitling, which appears a. 1300, being of dubious formation), in the 15th c. we find gosling (of which the earliest quoted form, gesling, points to adoption from ON.), and duckling. In the 16th c. and subsequently the suffix has been employed in many new diminutive formations, chiefly contemptuous appellations of persons, as godling, lordling, kingling, princeling; in this use it is still a living formative.
In the formation of diminutives expressing merely smallness of size, -ling has never been extensively used; a few writers of the 19th c. have so employed it in nonce-wds.
c. 1800. Lamb, Lett. (1837), I. 147. Gentry dipped in Styx all over, whom no paper javelin-lings can touch.
1815. J. Gilchrist, Labyrinth Demolished, 8. Philosophling. Ibid., 22. Thinkling. Ibid., 24. Metaphysicling.
1885. Howells, in Century Mag., XXX. 541. ‘A pity for you!’ cried the hunchbackling.
