Dictionary

fatherling en · NOUN

Etymology

From father + -ling.

Meanings

1. (derogatory, diminutive, endearing) A father.
   • Katherine Ivanovna rose from her chair, and in an outwardly calm voice (though she turned pale and her chest was heaving) told her that if she once more made so bold as to put her “dirty little fatherling" in the same class with her own dear papa, [...] 2006, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Crime and Punishment:
2. A father's child.
   • Because P (parent) and Ch (child) elide gender distinctions, Gould substitutes two pairs of terms: F (father) and F (fatherling, or man's child); [...] 2012, Thomas R. Trautmann, Peter M. Whiteley, Crow-Omaha:

Forms