deathlingn.
/ˈdɛθlɪŋ/, U.S. /ˈdɛθlɪŋ/ literary. † 2. In oaths and asseverations, as Gogs deathlings, od's deathling. Obsolete. rare.
1. A being subject to death, a mortal, as opposed to immortal or divine beings.
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the world > people > person > [noun] > distinguished from immortal
mortalc1485
deathling1605
sublunarian1710
earth person1879
1605 J. Sylvester tr. G. de S. Du Bartas Deuine Weekes & Wks. ii. i. 313 Alas fond death-lings!
1839 P. J. Bailey Festus 215 Deathlings! on earth drink, laugh, and love!
1886 A. S. Way tr. Homer Iliad I. xii. 304 Zeus..Who over the deathling race and the Deathless beareth sway.
a1938 T. Wolfe Web & Rock (1939) iv. xxiii. 368 She stood here now,..a phantom, and a living being—the fleshly unity that bound him suddenly to the ghostly past, a miracle of deathling loveliness.
1972 W. H. Auden Epist. to Godson (U.K. ed.) 36 Not doing very well, are you, poor deathling.
1989 P. Anderson In House of Sorrows in G. Benford & M. H. Greenberg What might have Been? I. 19 Two deathlings sprawled before us. They were pulp, splinters, huge splashes and pools of blood flamingly red under the sun.
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1611 R. Cotgrave Dict. French & Eng. Tongues Mordienne, Gogs deathlings; a foolish oath in Rab[elais].
1866 G. Métivier Fantaisies Guernesiaises 132 If there, od's deathling, let her stay! Kind Heav'n forgive me if I swear!
3. As a personification: an offspring of Death; a little demon serving Death. Now only in science and fantasy fiction: a type of imaginary being associated with death. rare.
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1735 J. Swift Death & Daphne in Wks. II. 402 His Realm had need That Death should get a num'rous Breed; Young Deathlings.
1897 R. G. Davies in E. Wynne Visions of Sleeping Bard 51 On the summit of each tower stood a Deathling, with a quivering heart on the point of his shaft.
2009 T. Salenger First Rider xvii. 111 The deathlings joined with men to make a fearsome army.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2014; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1605