earthling en · NOUN · etymology 1
Pronunciation
- (Australia) audio
- /ˈɝθlɪŋ/ (General-American)
- /ˈɜːθlɪŋ/ (Received-Pronunciation)
Etymology
From Middle English erthling (“farmer, ploughman”) [and other forms] (in glossaries), from Old English ierþling, eorþling (“farmer, husbandman, ploughman”) [and other forms], from eorþe (“ground; dirt; planet Earth”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₁er- (“earth”)) + -ling (suffix forming personal nouns). The English word is analysable as earth + -ling.
Meanings
-
(qualifier:obsolete except historical) One who tills the earth; a farmer, a husbandman, a ploughman.
Eoꞃðlinᵹ [Eorthling], is a Husbandman, or Earthling.
1714, John Fortescue-Aland [i.e., John Fortescue Aland, 1st Baron Fortescue of Credan], “Hereafter is Schewyd, What of the Kyngs Lyvelood Gevyn Away, may Best be Takyn Ageyne”, in John Fortescue, The Difference between an Absolute and a Limited Monarchy; as is More Particularly Regards the English Constitution. […], London: […] W[illiam] Bowyer, […], for E. Parker […], and T. Ward […], →OCLC, footnote a, page 79:And we have not imagination enough to believe, that either the Danish boors, who were earthlings (yrthlingas) in the country, or the Danish soldiers, who, as history tells us, were dandies at the court of King Canute, could, in the brief space of twenty years, have so overlaid or interlarded the pure Anglo-Saxon with their provincialisms, as to give it a new character, and thus form a new period in its history, as was afterwards done by the Normans.
1838 July, [Henry Wadsworth Longfellow], “Art. IV.—1. A Dictionary of the Anglo-Saxon Language, […] [book review]”, in The North American Review, volume XLVII, number C, Boston, Mass.: Otis, Broaders, & Co., […], →ISSN, →OCLC, page 94:
Forms
| Spelling | Features | Labels | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| earthlings | Number=Plur | lexicographic |