madling
English
editEtymology 1
editNoun
editmadling (plural madlings)
- A mad creature; one who acts wildly or foolishly.
- 1881, Benjamin Preston, Dialect and other poems, with glossary of the local words:
- A madling acts in opposition to common sense. He is an owd madling whose reason has become childish by the lapse of years.
- 2006, Jacqueline Carey, Godslayer: Volume II of The Sundering:
- A madling was speaking to them; a woman. Dani stopped with a mind to retreat.
- 2010, George R. R. Martin, Gardner Dozois, Songs of the Dying Earth:
- The madling—he had appeared today in the form of Austeri-Pranz, one of Vespanus' instructors at Roë, an intimidating man with bulging, rolling eyes and a formidable overbite—gave the question his consideration.
Etymology 2
editEither from attributive use of madling (see above), or for maddling, present participle of maddle (“to be mad”). More at maddle.
Adjective
editmadling (comparative more madling, superlative most madling)
- (dialect, chiefly archaic) Mad; insane; crazy.
- 1881, Benjamin Preston, Dialect and other poems, with glossary of the local words:
- To be madling is to have our ideas confused.
- 2006, Jacqueline Carey, Godslayer: Volume II of The Sundering:
- The madling woman snatched the tray from his hands, giving it to the Fjeltroll to inspect.
- 2014, Richard Monaco, Parsival:
- She blinked her painful eyes. “Oh,” she said, “the madling boy. . . . But how would I know this? Why do you trouble me with this? […]