Changeling

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /ˈtʃeɪn(d)ʒlɪŋ/

Definitions

1. A child secretly exchanged for another, typically by supernatural beings in folklore, or something that has been deceptively substituted for something else
2. A child or thing fraudulently substituted for another, especially one allegedly swapped by fairies or other supernatural forces in mythology
3. An infant or object surreptitiously replaced with a counterfeit substitute, particularly in folklore involving magical exchange

Etymology: A changeling was once a real explanation for a sick or strange baby. Folklore across Europe held that fairies or other supernatural beings would steal a human infant and leave in its place a sickly, peevish, or unnaturally quiet child that only seemed to be the original. Parents were told to test the newcomer, sometimes in drastic ways, to force the fairies to return the real child. The word is built from "change" and the suffix "-ling," which in English marks something small or immature, as in "duckling" or "gosling." So the term literally names a small substitute, a thing swapped in. Over time the sense shifted from the swapped infant itself to the supposed mark of the swap: a child who seemed foreign to their own family. The most striking turn came later. Because the fairy-substituted child was imagined as dull or foolish, "changeling" came to mean an idiot or simpleton, a person thought to have been left behind by magical creatures. That meaning arose directly from the folklore rather than from any scientific classification of intelligence.

Synonyms: substitute, replacement

Antonyms: original