CHANGELING

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

Etymology

Noun

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.

Synonyms

• (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