From German tief (“deep, low”) + -ling; coined for Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd edition.
tiefling (plural tieflings)
- (fantasy, roleplaying games) A member of a race of beings having a combination of human and demonic ancestry, found especially in Dungeons & Dragons.
2013, David M. Ewalt, “D&D Next”, in Of dice and men : the story of Dungeons & Dragons and the people who play it[1], Scribner, →ISBN, →LCCN, page 210:That left me with either a human female paladin or a tiefling warlord.
2015 April 9, Barbara T. Cerny, The Tiefling: Angel Kissed, Devil Touched[2], Assent Publishing, →ISBN:I did not choose to be a monster—a shell of a man—half-human, half-fiend. I am a tiefling. I am what I am.
2018, “Planar Scion”, in Starfinder: Alien Archive 2[3], Paizo, →ISBN, page 210:The Radiant Cathedral, on the other hand, trains aasimars to become beacons of the Sarenite faith, and also guides tieflings to a brighter future than their heritage suggests.