hinderling

English

Etymology

"Worthless person" sense: from Middle English hinderling (“a laggard, coward”), from Old English hinderling (“a mean wretch, a sneak”), equivalent to hinder +‎ -ling. Compare hilding.

Noun

hinderling (plural hinderlings)

1. (British, dialectal) A worthless, degenerate person or animal.
   • 1808, Joseph Strutt, [Walter Scott], “Section VII. Chapter II.”, in [Walter Scott], editor, Queenhoo-Hall, a Romance: And Ancient Times, a Drama. […], volume III, Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne & Co.] for John Murray, […]; and Archibald Constable & Co. […], →OCLC, page 155:

     How say you, my lusty compeers; shall we permit a hinderlin to sit at board with us, and brand us with the name of cowards?

   • 1813, Joseph Neef, The Method of Instructing Children Rationally in the Arts of Writing and Reading:

     An animal you deem good for nothing, you may term a hinderling.

   • 1889, John Milton Stearns, The germs and developments of the laws of England:

     […] from which the West Saxons, namely the men of Exeter have a saying of the greatest contempt, in that when moved by the highest wrath they call one another a hinderling, that is, one sunk down from all honor.

   • 2010, D. M. Cornish, Factotum:

     "How? How do I know? Know that you are there or know that you are a rossamünderling? An ouranin? A manikin? A hinderling? A pink-lips? A fake-foe? […] "

2. (dated, in the plural) The buttocks; the posterior.

Alternative forms

• hinderlin