gadling

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English

Etymology

From Middle English gadeling (companion in arms; man, fellow; a person of low birth; rascal, scoundrel; bastard; base, lowborn), gadeling (vagabond), from Old English geaduling, gædeling (kinsman, fellow, companion in arms, comrade), from Proto-West Germanic *gaduling, from Proto-Germanic *gadulingaz, *gadilingaz (relative, kinsman), equivalent to gad +‎ -ling. Related to Old English ġegada (comrade, companion).

Noun

gadling (plural gadlings)

  1. (obsolete) A companion in arms, fellow, comrade.
  2. A roving vagabond; one who roams
    • 1947, Thomas Bertram Costain, The Moneyman, digitized edition, Doubleday, published 2006, page 57:
      I'm delighted to see you. You're as brown, my gadling, as though you had returned from another journey to the East with Jean de Village.
  3. A man of humble condition; a fellow; a low fellow; lowborn; originally comrade or companion, in a good sense, but later used in reproach
    • 1906, Rudyard Kipling, Puck of Pook's Hill, HTML edition, The Gutenberg Project, published 2008, page 96:
      “Pest on him!” said De Aquila. “I have more to do than to shiver in the Great Hall for every gadling the King sends. Left he no word?”
  4. A spike on a gauntlet; a gad.

References

gadling”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

  • Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia