A young animal, especially a pig or lamb, that still drinks its mother's milk and has not been weaned.
From Old English 'sucan' (to suck) + '-ling' (a diminutive suffix meaning 'little'). Originally referred to any nursing infant, human or animal.
Suckling pigs are a delicacy in many cuisines around the world, and the word 'suckling' appears in medieval cookbooks—showing that food terminology is one of the oldest parts of any language!
While anatomically neutral, 'suckling' and infant care have been feminized in Western language, positioning nursing as women's 'natural' role and erasing men's historical participation in infant feeding across cultures.
Use neutrally to describe nursing infants of any caregiver; avoid implying the caregiver's gender.
["nursing infant","breastfeeding parent","bottle-feeding"]
Men have participated in infant feeding throughout history; Western ideology narrowed this to mothers, linguistically naturalizing gender roles.
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