Dictionary

gadling en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• /ˈɡæd.lɪŋ/

Etymology

From Middle English gadelyng (“companion in arms; man, fellow; a person of low birth; rascal, scoundrel; bastard; base, lowborn”), gadeling (“vagabond”), from Old English geaduling, gædeling (“kinsman, fellow, companion in arms, comrade”), from Proto-West Germanic *gaduling, from Proto-Germanic *gadulingaz, *gadilingaz (“relative, kinsman”), equivalent to gad + -ling. Related to Old English ġegada (“comrade, companion”).

Meanings

1. (obsolete) A companion in arms; fellow; comrade.
   • Gedlyngis, I am a fulle grete wat, […] 15th c., “Mactacio Abel [The Killing of Abel]”, in Wakefield Mystery Plays; Re-edited in George England, Alfred W. Pollard, editors, The Towneley Plays (Early English Text Society Extra Series; LXXI), London: […] Oxford University Press, 1897, →OCLC, page 10, line 14:
2. A roving vagabond; one who roams.
   • I'm delighted to see you. You're as brown, my gadling, as though you had returned from another journey to the East with Jean de Village. 1947, Thomas Bertram Costain, The Moneyman, digitized edition, Doubleday, published 2006, page 57:
3. A man of humble condition; a fellow; a low fellow; lowborn. Originally comrade or companion in a good sense, but later used in reproach.
   • “Pest on him!” said De Aquila. “I have more to do than to shiver in the Great Hall for every gadling the King sends. Left he no word?” 1906, Rudyard Kipling, Puck of Pook's Hill, HTML edition, The Gutenberg Project, published 2008, page 96:
4. A spike on a gauntlet; a gad.

Forms