worldling

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
Jump to navigation Jump to search

English

[edit]

Etymology

[edit]

From world +‎ -ling.

Noun

[edit]

worldling (plural worldlings)

  1. A mundane person, preoccupied with worldly affairs rather than spiritual matters.
    • c. 1596–1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Fourth, []”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies [] (First Folio), London: [] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene iii]:
      A foutra for the world and worldlings base!
    • 1600, Nicholas Breton, “A Solemn Farewell to the World”, in Melancholike Humours, in Verses of Diverse Natures:
      These wicked wares, that worldlings buy and sell,
      The moth will eat, or else the canker rust:
      All flesh is grass, and to the grave it must.
    • 1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 21, in Vanity Fair [], London: Bradbury and Evans [], published 1848, →OCLC:
      [] if the simple look benevolently on money, how much more do your old worldlings regard it! Their affections rush out to meet and welcome money.
    • 1888, The Lady's Book - Volumes 6-7, page 243:
      Disgusted with the world and worldlings, I drove down to an estate of my father's, in Suffolk, determined to “misanthropise” and be romantic ; but all my plans were disconcerted by the “Large blue eyes, fair locks, and snowy hands” of Miss Emily Hathenden, whose estate bordered on my own.

References

[edit]
  • Webster's Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary, Springfield, Massachusetts, G.&C. Merriam Co., 1967