bantling

Uncertain. Perhaps from band(s) (“swaddling clothes”) +‎ -ling, or a modification of German Bänkling (“bastard-child”), equivalent to bench +‎ -ling.

bantling (plural bantlings)

1. (archaic, UK dialectal) An infant or young child.
   • 1809, Washington Irving (as Dietrich Knickerbocker), A History of New-York from the Beginning of the World to the End of the Dutch Dynasty‎:

     And I even question whether any tender virgin, who was accidentally and unaccountably enriched with a bantling, would save her character at parlour fire-sides and evening tea-parties, by ascribing the phenomenon to a swan, a shower of gold, or a river god.

   • 1841, James Fenimore Cooper, The Deerslayer‎:

     "You!--half-grown, venison-hunting bantling!..."

   • 1999, The Wedding Gamble‎, page 104:

     "As if he'd let a cow-handed bantling like you handle them," Cecily muttered.
     "Children!" Meredyth protested, her face flushing. "What must Lord Englemere think, to hear you brangle so?"

2. (archaic) A bastard-child.
3. (archaic, derogatory) A brat.

• babe
• infant