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Glite Dictionary
🧙 A small fantasy being 🧒 A small person
halfling

halfling

1 9.9
A small person, often a child who is not fully grown
  • noun
  • /ˈhæfˌlɪŋ/
  • Archaic
translation icon : niño pequeño
  • Your love of the halfling's leaf has clearly slowed your mind.

Examples

  • It's okay, little halfling.

    The Boss Baby (2017)

  • It's okay, little halfling.

    The Boss Baby (2017)

  • We are helpless... we MUST pray to GOD for mercy, we halflings!

    Blog text (29)

  • The young halfling quickly climbed the tree, showing remarkable agility for someone so small.

  • As a halfling, he often felt overlooked by taller friends during their adventures.

  • In the old story, the brave halfling played a key role in defeating the great dragon.

Synonyms

kidling
vshalfling
  • Archaic
9.9

A young child in old or local language

is broader, also meaning a generally undersized person in literary use
half-pint
vshalfling
  • Offensive
8.2

A rude name for a small or short person, often a child

is archaic or literary and can mean a half-grown child rather than an insult

How Small

toddler
171 1.0
child
∞ 1.0
halfling
  • Archaic
1 9.9
small person
5 1.8
average
∞ 1.0
large person
1 1.0

Surface Forms

halfling singular
halflings plural

Morphology

halfling = half (transparent) = half + ling

Standard diminutive/person-forming suffix '-ling' added to 'half' yielding 'undersized or half-grown person', which is a directly inferable meaning.

Etymology

Halfling comes from half, which means 'part' or 'half', and the small-person ending -ling, which means 'small' or 'young' and appears in words like duckling and underling. So in old tales a halfling meant a small or half-grown person, which is why the word can mean an undersized person or a child.