petling

pet +‎ -ling

petling (plural petlings)

1. term of affection or endearment; darling.
   • 1845, Thomas Cooper, The Purgatory of Suicides, Book the Fourth, Stanza IX:

     If thou return not, Gammer o'er her pail

     Will sing in sorrow, 'neath the brinded cow,

     And Gaffer sigh over his nut-brown ale; […]

     While evermore the petlings, with sad brow,

     Will look for thee upon the holly bough […]

   • 1898, Mary J.H. Skrine, "How Clytemnestra Saved a Kingdom," Temple Bar:A London Magazine for Town and Country Readers, Vol. 113, February 1898:

     The cause of his summary dethronement was, that Ma Betty, meaning it in affection, had called him her “heavenly petling." Jofiie objected, on the ground that, whatever she meant, “ heavenly petling” was in Monkeyish a term of insult.

• pelting