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
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