‘Foundling’, The Changeling, underling, duckling, middling, –ling, waters, average, medium, mediocre, fair,

The Changeling

‘Foundling’ is an historic term applied to children, usually babies, that have been abandoned by parents and discovered and cared for by others.

Quirky habits of chief executives inflict extra pain on underlings, and can damage businesses in the long run

As Baseballs Fly Farther in Japan, Commissioner Is Criticized

By KEN BELSON

After denying that the ball was juiced, Commissioner Ryozo Kato admitted it and said his underlings had not told him about the change.

-ling

suff.

1. One connected with: worldling.
2. One having a specified quality: underling.
3. One that is young, small, or inferior: duckling.

[Middle English, from Old English.]

underling,

(ŭn'dər-lĭng)
n.
One of lesser rank or authority than another; a subordinate.

WORD HISTORY Learning the meanings of affixes is a common approach to building vocabulary, but studying a group of words that share an affix can be fascinating in its own right. The suffix -ling, inherited from Common Germanic, already had several uses in Old English, all of which produced new nouns. It could, for example, be added to a noun to make a second noun that referred to something connected with or similar to the first noun; thus, adding this suffix to the Old English word yrth, "ploughland," produced the Old English word yrthling, "plowman." The suffix could also be added to an adjective to make a noun that referred to something having the quality denoted by the adjective: from Old English dēore, "dear, beloved," was derived dēorling (Modern English darling). Adding -ling to an adverb produced a noun referring to something having the position or condition denoted by the adverb: from Old English under came underling. This last use of -ling is actually taken over from Old Norse. In Old Norse -ling was used to form diminutives; thus, our word gosling was a borrowing in Middle English of an Old Norse word, gæslingr, "gosling, a little goose."

underlings

在那兒（Dear Brutus by J. M. Barrie），一位劇中人引用莎士比亞《裘力斯‧凱撒》第一幕第二場裡的兩行詩：

Casius The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars,

But in ourselves, that we are underlings.

朱生豪的譯文是：

凱歇斯 要是我們受制於人，親愛的勃魯托斯，那錯處並不在我們的命運，而在我們自己。

朱譯把underlings譯作受制於人，這在《裘力斯‧凱撒》這個劇本裡是合式的，在 Barrie這個劇本裡不合式，譯做「小人物」或「沒出息的人」較好。

出處：《第二夢》載《呂叔湘文集》北京：商務，第5卷，頁401

說明：這underlings（常用此複數型underlings） 或說是貶義的 subordinate 或 a person lower in status or rank.

Mieslings

SYNONYMS average, medium, mediocre, fair, middling, indifferent, tolerable. These adjectives indicate a middle position on a scale of evaluation.

Average and medium apply to what is midway between extremes and imply both sufficiency and lack of distinction: a novel of average merit; an orange of medium size.

Mediocre stresses the undistinguished aspect of what is average: “The caliber of the students . . . has gone from mediocre to above average” (Judy Pasternak).

What is fair is passable but substantially below excellent: in fair health. Middling refers to a ranking between average and mediocre: gave a middling performance.

Indifferent suggests neutrality: “His home, alas, was but an indifferent attic” (Edward Everett Hale). Something tolerable is merely acceptable: prepared a tolerable meal.

The middling and lower status people of a village had to settle for the cemetery; the village elite were interred under the church floor.



When common people began to use forks, too, the elite began a progressive differentiation of plates, utensils, and glassware, creating elaborate dinner settings that could not be duplicated by the middling and poor.

6 references to middling in this book

1.	on Page 55:
	"middle class or `middling sort' was not, of course, a socially self- conscious or particularly coherent grouping"
2.	on Page 57:
	"progressive education designed to fit the sons of the middling sort to staff the professions and the world of business. These schools were often short-lived, and when they ... "
3.	on Page 59:
	"master of ceremonies was dependent not merely on the names of the great but also on the money of the middling. For every nobleman reported as taking the waters or attending the Assembly" waters A particular stretch of sea or ocean, especially that of a state or country: escorted out of British waters.
4.	on Page 63:
	" ... Smollett and Fielding, it took the form of a moralistic interest in the social life of the lower and middling sort"
5.	on Page 79:
	"They represented the `middling and inferior sort' at its most concentrated, its most articulate, and its most volatile. When they took their grievance ... "
6.	on Page 92:
	" ... whatever their electoral inadequacies, were highly sensitive to the demands of small and middling property-owners" middling

adj.

1. Of medium size, position, or quality.
2. Mediocre. See synonyms at average.

n.

1. Chiefly Southern U.S.
   1. Pork or bacon cut from between the ham and shoulder of a pig. Often used in the plural.
   2. Salt pork. Also called middling meat.
2. middlings Any of various products, such as partially refined petroleum or ore, that are intermediate in quality, size, price, or grade.
3. middlings (used with a sing. or pl. verb) Coarsely ground wheat mixed with bran.

adv. Informal.
Fairly; moderately: “a middling nice cake” (Hatfield MA Valley Advocate).

[Probably Middle English midlin : mid, mid; see mid¹ + -ling, having a quality; see –ling¹.]

–ling
suff.

1. One connected with: worldling.
2. One having a specified quality: underling.
3. One that is young, small, or inferior: duckling.

[Middle English, from Old English.]

Why did Hans Christian Andersen write The Ugly Duckling?
Here's my guess: the story tells us that we should look at people's hearts, not their appearance. And that it doesn't matter what others think of you, as long as you set a good goal for yourself. The duckling wished to be as beautiful as a swan, but what he didn't know was that he already had it in him, but to see it he had to endure many hardships. If he had given up all hope and let himself die during winter, he wouldn't have seen himself become a beautiful swan in the end.

The duckling wasn't really ugly, he just didn't belong with the other ducks and geese. He was in fact different, and more beautiful, but they thought him ugly and stupid. Sometimes people don't understand, and mock others who are perhaps better than them.