baseling

English

Etymology

From Middle English baseling (attested only in the sense of debased coinage), equivalent to base +‎ -ling.

Noun

baseling (plural baselings)

  1. (rare) One who is base or inferior
    • 1873, Homer, The First Six Books of the Iliad of Homer, page 31:
      O weaklings, baselings we, — Achaian women, and not men!
    • 1882, Frederick Randolph Abbe, The Temple Rebuilt, page 179:
      Why lift aloft the baseling? give the sword
      To unanointed hands? garland the brow
      Which virtue never crowned? […]
    • 2015, Joseph S. Exell, Biblical Illustrator, volume 5:
      Or again, the world's simpletons, the world's nonentities, the world's weaklings and baselings (i.e., elements deemed such by the world) the chosen things, the very elements of God's selection for the kingdom, […]

Synonyms

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