bædling
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Old English
[edit]Etymology
[edit]Of unclear origin. Perhaps related to bedd (“bed”), suggesting "a delicate fellow, tenderling, one who lies much in bed",[1] or perhaps to bæddel.[2]
Pronunciation
[edit]Noun
[edit]bædling m
- a word of uncertain precise meaning, variously interpreted as delicate man, effeminate man, or hermaphrodite
References
[edit]- ^ Joseph Bosworth and T. Northcote Toller (1898) “bædling”, in An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, 2nd edition, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- ^ David Clark, Between Medieval Men (2009), especially pages 62-65