bantling

Etymology

Origin uncertain. Perhaps from band(s) (“swaddling clothes”) +‎ -ling, or a modification of German Bänkling (“bastard child”), equivalent to bench +‎ -ling.

Noun

bantling (plural bantlings)

1. (Britain dialectal) An infant or young child.
   • 1809, Washington Irving (as Dietrich Knickerbocker), A History of New-York from the Beginning of the World to the End of the Dutch Dynasty‎:

     And I even question whether any tender virgin, who was accidentally and unaccountably enriched with a bantling, would save her character at parlour fire-sides and evening tea-parties, by ascribing the phenomenon to a swan, a shower of gold, or a river god.

   • 1841, James Fenimore Cooper, The Deerslayer‎:

     "You!--half-grown, venison-hunting bantling!..."