maid-childn.

c1275 (?a1200) Laȝamon Brut (Calig.) (1978) 14378 He bad Hengest..ȝiuen him þat maide-child [c1300 Otho maide].

c1275 (?a1200) Laȝamon Brut (Calig.) (1978) l. 12241 Moni mæide child. wes þere mid mære þere quene.

c1390 G. Chaucer Shipman's Tale 1285 A mayde child cam in hir compaignye.

a1450 (?a1390) J. Mirk Instr. Parish Priests (Claud.) (1974) 217 Also thys mote ben hem sayde, Boþe for knaue chyldere & for mayde, That [etc.].

c1460 (a1325) Cursor Mundi (Laud) 11299 Ffor maide child [a1400 (a1325) Vesp. maiden child] as long also.

1535 Bible (Coverdale) Lev. xii. 5 But yf she beare a maydechilde [1611 maid child].

1609 W. Shakespeare Pericles xxii. 26 [She] brought forth a Mayd child calld Marina. View more context for this quotation

1622 J. Mabbe tr. M. Alemán Rogue ii. 328 Mulata, is a maid-childe, that is born of a Negra, and a fayre man.

1640 W. Vaughan Church Militant 349 Our Iepthes vow for his Maid-Child too grim, Doth the Grek Prince his Iphigenia dim.

1865 G. MacDonald Alec Forbes I. xxviii. 248 In the bosom of the good man rose a gentle indignation against the schismatics who had thus terrified and bewildered that sacred being, a maid-child.

1886 Overland Monthly June 641 What if the low green grass had murmured, saying, ‘Short, too, for thee, sweet maid-child, is thy staying On this side heaven’.

1891 E. H. Hickey Michael Villiers 7 They always talked about the boy to come, As if there were no chance he proved a girl! The man-child must be first at Villiers Keep, The brothers said, the maid-child by-and-by.

1903 J. Payne Vigil & Vision i. 4 Sweet April, with thy mingling tears and smiles, Dear maid-child of the changing months that art.

1955 J. R. R. Tolkien Return of King vi. ix. 306 Half the maidchildren of the Shire are called by such names.