{"id":23513,"date":"2024-06-12T20:00:23","date_gmt":"2024-06-12T20:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/?p=23513"},"modified":"2024-06-12T20:00:24","modified_gmt":"2024-06-12T20:00:24","slug":"earthlings-and-other-lings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/?p=23513","title":{"rendered":"Earthlings and Other Lings"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Greetings fellow <strong>Earthlings<\/strong> and anyone else who might be reading this. Did you know that this word originally meant <strong>farmer<\/strong>? <\/p>\n<p><a data-flickr-embed=\"true\" href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/129978259@N03\/16207124905\/in\/photolist-qGaKA2-DqxTvf-Mafbg-64sVYT-7bU1mG-2cPADKw-8eDmXs-eEphj-4MWEHd-5ByrZH-2n5woyh-5ASAzg-fZGs5e-6HtWRb-b34WA-3FYY6E-ptund5-dE1qqM-pvx3RM-5e7J5e-ptsbTw-8rGNTF-6D8vMm-9wqA5a-8C1sCS-5e7K4Z-br6VFa-5ec7cG-6ybRYb-6ybSiE-4szKv-6LcxMH-7dKhcr-3XUYRs-ptMMc3-5ec7Xm-6y7KtH-6ybV69-2npXNNm-5JpQb5-58RcpJ-ZEYSgm-oDxSfA-oDxRyW-gqerPw-oFj3EV-5tLM9w-HCBPTb-aevPD4-HCBKEG\" title=\"farmer\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/7494\/16207124905_da5daf350c_z.jpg\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" alt=\"farmer\"\/><\/a><script async src=\"\/\/embedr.flickr.com\/assets\/client-code.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>These days in Science Fiction, an <strong>Earthling<\/strong> is &#8220;an inhabitant of Earth, as opposed to one of another planet; specifically, a sentient member of any species native to Earth.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>In the 17th century is referred to &#8220;A person who is materialistic or worldly; a worldling.&#8221; and in the 16th century, it referred to &#8220;An inhabitant of Earth, as opposed to one of heaven.&#8221; [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/Earthling#English\">source<\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>Going back further, it meant one who tills the earth, a farmer, a husbandman or a ploughman. It comes from Middle English <em>erthling<\/em> (farmer, ploughman), from Old English <em>ier\u00feling, eor\u00feling<\/em> (farmer, husbandman, ploughman), from <em>eor\u00fee<\/em> (ground, dirt, planet Earth), from PIE <em>*h\u2081er-<\/em> (earth) [<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/earthling#English\">source<\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>Other interesting words suffixed with <strong>-ling<\/strong> include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>puffling<\/strong> = a young puffin<\/li>\n<li><strong>princeling<\/strong> = a minor or unimportant prince<\/li>\n<li><strong>sportling<\/strong> = a little person or creature engaged in sports or in play<\/li>\n<li><strong>shaveling<\/strong> = someone with all or part of their head shaved, notably a tonsured clergyman; a priest or monk (<em>often derogatory<\/em>).<\/li>\n<li><strong>wildling<\/strong> = a wild plant or animal<\/li>\n<li><strong>witling<\/strong> = a person who feigns wit, pretending or aspiring to be witty, a person with very little wit.<\/li>\n<li><strong>godling<\/strong> = a young god, a minor divinity, a local or inferior god, a.k.a. godlet, godkin<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>There&#8217;s also <strong>underling<\/strong> (a subordinate or person of lesser rank or authority), and it&#8217;s rare antonym <strong>overling<\/strong> (a superior, ruler, master)  [<a href=\"hhttps:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/underling#English\">source<\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>You can see more of these on: <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/-ling#English\">https:\/\/en.wiktionary.org\/wiki\/-ling#English<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.japanesepod101.com\/member\/go.php?r=759259&amp;i=b0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/images\/banners\/banner_japanesepod.jpg\" alt=\"The Fastest Way to Learn Japanese Guaranteed with JapanesePod101.com\" width=\"630\" height=\"83\"><\/a><\/p>\n<div align=\"center\"><a href=\"http:\/\/my.kualo.com\/uk\/go\/00572\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.kualo.com\/rewards\/uk-unlimited-728x90.gif\" width=\"728\" height=\"90\" border=\"0\"\nalt=\"Unlimited Web Hosting - Kualo\"\/><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Greetings fellow Earthlings and anyone else who might be reading this. Did you know that this word originally meant farmer? These days in Science Fiction, an Earthling is &#8220;an inhabitant of Earth, as opposed to one of another planet; specifically, a sentient member of any species native to Earth.&#8221; In the 17th century is referred [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[104,107,10,26,33,45,78],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23513","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english","category-etymology","category-language","category-middle-english","category-old-english-aenglisc","category-proto-indo-european","category-words-and-phrases"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23513","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23513"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23513\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23516,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23513\/revisions\/23516"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23513"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23513"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23513"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}