A small or young cloud; a diminutive or insignificant cloud formation.
From 'cloud' plus '-ling' (Old English diminutive suffix meaning 'little' or 'junior,' also seen in 'duckling' and 'sapling'). The suffix originally indicated something small, young, or subordinate.
Diminutive suffixes like '-ling' reveal how languages encode our instinct to make things seem cute or less threatening by shrinking them—the same impulse that makes us call a cat a 'kitty' or a duck a 'ducklinₙg.' It's psychology baked into grammar!
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