foundling
4
9.8
- noun
- /ˈfaʊndlɪŋ/
- Archaic
:
expósito
- In the village, the kind couple decided to adopt a foundling who had been left at their doorstep.
- a foundling home
- foundling hospital
And in a way, Wolf is actually a foundling because he's a foundling to the wolves.
- And in a way, Wolf is actually a foundling because he's a foundling to the wolves.
Examples
-
To him he may have been an orphan or a foundling, a child left on the doors of the of the Friary.
-
There might be enough for the foundling girl.
Fiction book (1994) -
Why, I once believed that I was a foundling... ...with royal blood.
-
But he knows us, or about us, me being a foundling and all.
-
And he'll remain a foundling.
-
A foundling, taken in by him and his housekeeper.
-
About the three peasant women raising a foundling child deep in the forest.
-
The whispers had one thing right, at any rate: the foundling was gorgeous.
Fiction book (1997) -
The foundling, of course, had to be reared a nobleman.
-
But Mina was not a blood child; they had adopted her as a foundling baby and never regretted it.
Fiction book (1994)
Synonyms
38
3.2
Something left without care or help
1
5.1
A baby left without care whose parents are unknown
Compounds
Surface Forms
Morphology
foundling = found (transparent) = found + ling
The noun is directly formed from 'found' (discovered) + the diminutive/agentive suffix '-ling', so the meaning 'a baby who was found/abandoned' is directly inferable.
Etymology
The word foundling comes from the verb find meaning 'to discover' and the small-person ending -ling, as in duckling, 'small duck'. So a foundling is literally a 'found little one', which is why it means a baby who was left and then discovered and cared for.