changeling child
- noun
- /ˈʧeɪndʒlɪŋ ʧaɪld/
- Literature
:
niño cambiado
- Changeling child possessed of a quicksilver mind and a steely will, so gifted that he graduated from the county high school at sixteen and went on to Morehouse College in Atlanta on a full scholarship, and from there to Yale Divinity School and then Duke Law.
Examples
-
The changeling child stood in the doorway, a white flannel nightgown grazing its knees.
Fiction book (2000) -
When the housekeeper was gone, the Reverend Eldred called the changeling child to come and stand before him by the breakfast table.
Fiction book (2000) -
"So she's gone?" the man of God asked the changeling child, for he knew the ways in which these matters worked.
Fiction book (2000) -
The old woman stared at the changeling child.
Fiction book (2000) -
It was easier to hunt the changeling child, and so that was what he did.
Fiction book (2000) -
"What have you done?" He fell to one knee before the changeling child and grabbed its shoulders tightly through heavy sleeves.
Fiction book (2000) -
My aunt once said I was a changeling child—the spirit of a dragon baby breathed into my own dead body and brought me back to life.
Fiction book (1993) -
In Act 4, Scene 1, she gives him the changeling child, and he celebrates by stage-managing their newfound "amity" and the ensuing wedding of the lovers.
Academic text (1998) -
"We aren't beasts," the changeling child repeated, and the three words blew away to nothingness because they had no true meaning to hold them to the world.
Fiction book (2000) -
The villagers whispered about the changeling child who had appeared in place of the stolen infant.
Synonyms
133
9.9
A child parents believe fairies secretly swapped for their real baby
A child left by fairies instead of a human baby
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly compositional: 'changeling' already denotes a child replaced by fairies and 'child' simply specifies the referent, so a learner who knows both words can infer the phrase's meaning. This follows ordinary noun + noun composition and is not idiomatic or metaphorical, making it immediately understandable to B1 learners familiar with the constituents.
Etymology
Changeling child comes from old folk tales where fairies were said to secretly swap a human baby for one of their own. So, a changeling child was a changeling, a 'replaced' child, and the phrase explains why people used it for a baby who seemed different or ill.