madchild

English

Etymology

By analogy to madman and madwoman.

Noun

madchild (plural madchildren)

1. A child who is insane.
   • 1994, Murray Krantz, Child Development: Risk and Opportunity, →ISBN, page 297:

     Sitting on the bed surveying the damage, she begins to notice some order to the chaos. Perhaps this is not the act of a madman (or madchild) after all.

   • 2000, Gad Hollander, Walserian waltzes, →ISBN, page 25:

     The madhouse went down to the beach today - madmen, madwomen, madchildren - not to bathe, though the weather was perfect for bathing, but to welcome outcasts of every description from lands overseas.

   • 2012, H. Brandt Ayers, The 2013 BCS National Championship, →ISBN:

     I felt an unusual detachment, an almost agnostic attitude toward the contest of giants that would turn New Orleans's Superdome into a vast asylum for madmen, madwomen and even madchildren.