A child born with a flat skull or head; an archaic term for a person with a flattened cranium.
From 'flat' + Anglo-Saxon '-ling' diminutive/descriptive suffix (similar to 'foundling' or 'duckling'). An archaic medical or descriptive term from earlier centuries.
Medieval and early modern people used '-ling' as a suffix to describe all sorts of conditions or characteristics—'flatling' for someone with a flat head, 'changeling' for a fairy-swapped child—it was their way of labeling medical differences!
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