bantling
nounEtymology Uncertain. Perhaps from band(s) (“swaddling clothes”) + -ling, or a modification of German Bänkling (“bastard-child”), equivalent to bench + -ling.
- And I even question whether any tender virgin, who was accidentally and unaccountably enriched with a bantling, would save her character at parlour fire-sides and evening tea-parties, by ascribing the phenomenon to a swan, a shower of gold, or a river god.1809, Washington Irving (as Dietrich Knickerbocker), A History of New-York from the Beginning of the World to the End of the Dutch Dynasty:
- "You!--half-grown, venison-hunting bantling!..."1841, James Fenimore Cooper, The Deerslayer:
1 more example
- "As if he'd let a cow-handed bantling like you handle them," Cecily muttered. "Children!" Meredyth protested, her face flushing. "What must Lord Englemere think, to hear you brangle so?"1999, The Wedding Gamble, page 104:
2
Archaic A bastard-child.
3
Archaic, Derogatory A brat.