A small or young fish; a young or inexperienced fisher.
From 'fish' + '-ling' (diminutive and agent suffix from Old English, as in 'duckling' or 'hireling'), creating a double diminutive sense of something small or junior.
'Fishling' is charmingly archaic—it appears in fantasy literature and historical fiction to suggest a young fisher apprentice or a small creature of the water, and the '-ling' suffix itself is what makes 'underling,' 'yearling,' and 'stripling' possible.
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