groomling

English

Etymology

From groom +‎ -ling.

Noun

groomling (plural groomlings)

1. A little or young groom (“person who looks after horses”).
   • 1835, William Beckford, Italy: With Sketches of Spain and Portugal, volume 1, page 13:

     […] though it was pitch-dark, and we were obliged to be escorted by grooms and groomlings with candles and lanterns; a very necessary precaution, as the winds blew not more violently without the house than within.

   • 1880, [Mary Elizabeth Braddon], “In Tangley Wood”, in Just as I Am […], volume II, London: John and Robert Maxwell […], →OCLC, page 230:

     Half an hour later the two girls were in the wood near Tangley Manor, gathering wild flowers, while the ponies waited in a sheltered corner, and the groomling in charge slumbered placidly in the bottom of the carriage, with the reins in his hands.