The story
- Old English · inherited fromhinderling“a mean wretch, a sneak”
- Middle English · inherited fromhinderling“a laggard, coward”
- English todayhinderling
"Worthless person" sense: from Middle English hinderling (“a laggard, coward”), from Old English hinderling (“a mean wretch, a sneak”), equivalent to hinder + -ling. Compare hilding.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.