1550s, "one given to change," from change (n.) + diminutive suffix -ling. Meaning "person or thing left in place of one secretly taken" is from 1560s; specific reference to an infant or young child (usually stupid or ugly) supposedly left by the faeries in place of one they took is from 1580s. An earlier word for it was oaf or auf.
权威例句
1. I have always felt like a changeling born into the wrong family.
我一直感觉自己小时候被调包过,不是这一家的人。
2. September a changeling, busy a squirrel a hickory tree, idle a languid brook.
九月真是变幻莫测, 忙来如山核桃树上的松鼠, 闲来却又象懒散缓流的小溪.
3. September is a changeling busy as squirrel in a hickory tree, idle as a languid brook.