Etymograph

English

softling

From soft + -ling.

Formed from soft + -ling

Proto-West Germanic *samft(ī) ‘level’

Old English sōfte

Middle English softe ‘soft’

English soft

Today it means

noun A soft, effeminate person; a voluptuary.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “softling”. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.

Etymograph / softling