An animal, especially a young animal, that is the fourth offspring born to the same mother, or one of a set of quadruplets.
From Middle English, combining 'four' with the diminutive suffix -ling, similar to how 'duckling' or 'gosling' works. The term has been used since medieval times in agriculture to describe farm animals.
Farmers historically cared deeply about whether a ewe gave birth to a twinning, a triplet, or a fourling because it dramatically affected survival rates and the mother's ability to nurse all the babies—quadruplets were actually considered a disaster because the mother rarely had enough milk for all four.
Complete word intelligence in one call. Free tier — 50 lookups/day.