worldling

English

Etymology

From world + -ling.

Noun

worldling (plural worldlings)

  1. A mundane person, preoccupied with worldly affairs rather than spiritual matters.
    • 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.
    • 1848, William Makepeace Thackeray, Vanity Fair, Chapter 21:
      [] 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.

References

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