Nursling

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A young child or infant who is being cared for and nourished, especially one that is breastfed or bottle-fed
2. A young child dependent on care and nourishment from a caregiver, typically one being breastfed or bottle-fed
3. An infant or small child in need of feeding and parental attention who relies wholly on another for survival

Etymology: "Nursling" is a plain compound: "nurse" with the suffix "-ling" attached. The "nurse" part traces back through Middle English and Old French to Latin "nutrire", meaning "to nourish", and it originally covered the caring of any dependant, not only the feeding of babies. The "-ling" ending is an old Germanic diminutive and personal suffix, which English inherited from Old English and which appears in words like "duckling" and "foundling" (a child found and abandoned). Put together, "nursling" describes whoever is being nursed rather than the person doing the nursing. The suffix turns the act of nursing into a person who receives it, which is why the word sounds like a small, tender creature rather than a grown adult. The "-ling" pattern is productive in English, so the word follows an ordinary path of formation rather than a single moment of invention.

Synonyms: infant, baby

Antonyms: adult, grown-up