In the 18th century, the Swedish government made coffee and its paraphernalia (including cups and dishes) illegal for its supposed ties to rebellious sentiment.
changeling
(noun) a child secretly exchanged for another in infancy
idiot, imbecile, cretin, moron, changeling, half-wit, retard
(noun) a person of subnormal intelligence
Source: WordNet® 3.1
changeling (plural changelings)
(mythology) In pre-modern European mythology, an infant that was secretly exchanged for a mother's own baby by an evil creature. (In British, Irish and Scandinavian mythology the exchanged infants were thought to be those of fairies, sprites or trolls; in other places, they were ascribed to witches, devils, or demons.)
(informal, rare) An infant secretly exchanged with another infant by mistake or by human doing; swapling.
(science fiction and fantasy) An organism which can change shape to mimic others.
(obsolete) A simpleton; an idiot.
(obsolete) One apt to change; a waverer.
• (fairy's child): auf (obsolete), oaf (obsolete)
• (being that can change shape): shape-shifter
• (a child exchanged for another): swapling
Source: Wiktionary
Change"ling, n. Etym: [Change + -ling.]
1. One who, or that which, is left or taken in the place of another, as a child exchanged by fairies. Such, men do changelings call, so changed by fairies' theft. Spenser. The changeling [a substituted writing] never known. Shak.
2. A simpleton; an idiot. Macaulay. Changelings and fools of heaven, and thence shut out. Wildly we roam in discontent about. Dryden.
3. One apt to change; a waverer. "Fickle changelings." Shak.
Change"ling, a.
1. Taken or left in place of another; changed. "A little changeling boy." Shak.
2. Given to change; inconstant. [Obs.] Some are so studiously changeling. Boyle.
Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition
16 September 2024
(noun) accommodation to domestic life; “her explorer husband resisted all her attempts at domestication”
In the 18th century, the Swedish government made coffee and its paraphernalia (including cups and dishes) illegal for its supposed ties to rebellious sentiment.