changeling

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a child secretly substituted for another in folklore, esp. by fairies

   The villagers feared the sickly infant was a changeling.

From change + -ling (diminutive/agentive suffix), originally meaning 'one given to change, a fickle person', later the folkloric child secretly exchanged by fairies. Change is from Old French changier, from Late Latin cambiāre.

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