a person belonging to the planet Earth; a human being (mostly used in science fiction stories or films, or in a humours way),
some earthlings
e.g.
In any scientific horror story or film, an alien is shown as a small and weak-bodied creature with great power of technological advancement, and an earthling is shown as a strong-bodied helpless creature who wins over the alien with love and sympathy.
Some scientists believe that aliens or spacelings, i.e. creatures visiting our planet Earth from outer space, are more advanced creatures than we the earthlings.
Creationists strongly support the theory that all the earthlings are created by a supernatural power.
Some autodidacts, such as Eric Von Denkins, proposed that god is none other than the aliens who came to the Earth and, as a part of their experiment, created the earthlings!
For an excellent documentary video on earthlings, please click here, for a blog post about the age-old question ‘Is god an earthling or Alien?’, please click here and for a blog post that shows us how we come across this word in our daily readings, please click here.
Language Usage: The suffix ‘–ling’ is used after some other relevant noun to show the connection or to refer to the young of some animals or birds, e.g. ‘worldling’ = (world + ling) a person who prefers to enjoy the pleasures that are found in this world instead of looking for spiritual guidance; ‘underling’ = (under + ling) a junior or assistant to some senior or higher official; ‘hireling’ = (hire + ling) a worker who works only for money; ‘princeling’ = (prince + ling) a minor or unimportant prince; ‘duckling’ = (duck + ling) a baby duck; ‘gosling’ = (gos + ling) a baby goose; and, of course, ‘earthling’ = (earth + ling) a creature belonging to the Earth. However, note that ‘dazzling’ does not fall under this category because the suffix in this word is just ‘–ing’ but not ‘–ling’ — the root word is ‘dazzle’ = ‘dazzling‘! (The words ‘startling’ = ‘startle’ + ‘ing’, ‘sparkling’ = ‘sparkle’ + ‘ing’, etc. do not fall under this category because the suffix, i.e. the end part is ‘ing’ but not “ling”.)
BC Kumar, an English Language Teacher, taught in numerous countries including Ethiopia, Oman and India, shares his knowledge and passion for the English Language.
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