different between shapeshifter vs changeling

English

Alternative forms

• shape-shifter

Etymology

shape +? shifter

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /??e?p??ft?/

Noun

shapeshifter (plural shapeshifters)

1. (fantasy, mythology) A creature capable of changing its appearance or form at will.
   • 2000: Glen Cook, Water Sleeps

     The shapeshifter Lisa Bowalk, unable to shed the guise of a black panther, had gone onto the plain as a prisoner but was not now to be found among the dead above or the Captured down below.

   • 2003: Michael Bathgate, The Fox's Craft in Japanese Religion and Folklore: Shapeshifters, Transformations and Duplicities

     Like the teller of shapeshifter stories—who conjures a shifting world of perceptions and expectations for his or her audience that is strikingly similar to the worlds created by the shapeshifter for its victims—the cultural practice of imagination...is an inherently shifty enterprise....

   • 2004: Devin Grayson, Smallville: City

     There have also been verified reports of fire-starters and ice-makers and a shapeshifter so powerful she was able to frame another Smallville citizen for a bank robbery!

Synonyms

• See Thesaurus:shape-shifter.

Translations

Anagrams

• phase shifter

English

Etymology

The noun is derived from change +? -ling (suffix with the sense ‘immature; small’). Sense 6 (“idiot, simpleton”) is from the idea that foolish children had been left by magical creatures (sense 1).

The adjective is derived from the noun.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?t?e?n(d)?l??/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?t??e?nd??l??/
• Hyphenation: change?ling

Noun

changeling (plural changelings)

1. (European folklore, also figuratively) In pre-modern European folklore: an infant of a magical creature that was secretly exchanged for a human infant. In British, Irish and Scandinavian mythology the exchanged infants were thought to be those of fairies, sprites or trolls; in other places, they were ascribed to demons, devils, or witches.

   Synonyms: auf, (both obsolete) oaf
2. (by extension) A person or object (especially when regarded as inferior) secretly exchanged for something else.
3. (by extension, informal, rare) An infant secretly exchanged with another infant deliberately or by mistake; a swapling.
4. (fantasy, science fiction) An organism which can change shape to mimic others; a shape-shifter.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:shape-shifter

5. (archaic, also figuratively) A person apt to change their loyalty or thinking; a waverer.

   Synonym: turncoat
6. (obsolete) An idiot, a simpleton.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:idiot

Translations

Adjective

changeling (comparative more changeling, superlative most changeling)

1. (archaic, rare) Changeable, fickle, inconstant, wavering.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:changeable

References

Further reading

• changeling on Wikipedia.Wikipedia