Fatherling
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 A father. diminutive, endearing
"Katherine Ivanovna rose from her chair, and in an outwardly calm voice (though she turned pale and her chest was heaving) told her that if she once more made so bold as to put her “dirty little fatherling" in the same class with her own dear papa, [...]"
- 2 A father's child.
"Because P (parent) and Ch (child) elide gender distinctions, Gould substitutes two pairs of terms: F (father) and F (fatherling, or man's child); [...]"
Example
More examples"Katherine Ivanovna rose from her chair, and in an outwardly calm voice (though she turned pale and her chest was heaving) told her that if she once more made so bold as to put her “dirty little fatherling" in the same class with her own dear papa, [...]"
Etymology
From father + -ling.
More for "fatherling"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.