Meanings
plural halflings
- fantasyA fictional humanoid born of a human parent and a parent of another race in fantasy fiction.
- A half-grown person, between a child and an adult.
Often it had been my fate to accompany the pick of the knight errantry of Whinnyliggate on such quests—for, though Nance was about my own age, she had become a reigning belle while I was but a halfling boy.
1897, Lady's Realm: An Illustrated Monthly Magazine, volume 1, page 52
Synonyms & antonyms
Origin
From half + -ling. Sense 3 ("half-grown young person") is attested to 1794. It was then used by J.R.R. Tolkien in The Lord of the Rings (1954) as an alternative reference to members of his hobbit race. Hobbits were used in the original 1974 releases of the role-playing game Dungeons and Dragons, but in later editions they were changed to "halflings" for legal reasons, as being a pre-existing word rather than one invented by Tolkien.
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Catalan mitjà
- mitjàa hobbit
Chinese Mandarin 半身人
- 半身人 (bànshēnrén)a hobbit
Czech půlčík
- půlčíka hobbit
Finnish hobitti, hoppeli
- hobittia hobbit
- hoppelia hobbit
French halfelin, semi-homme
- halfelina hobbit
- semi-hommea hobbit
German Halbling
- Halblinga hobbit
Italian mezz'uomo, halfling
- mezz'uomoa hobbit
- halflinga hobbit
Japanese ハーフリング
- ハーフリング (hāfuringu)a hobbit
Korean 하플링
- 하플링 (hapeulling)a hobbit
Polish niziołek, niziołki
- niziołeka hobbit
- niziołkia hobbit
Portuguese pequenino, pequenina
- pequeninoa hobbit
- pequeninaa hobbit
- metadílioa hobbit
- metadíliaa hobbit
Russian полуро́слик, ха́флинг
- полуро́слик (poluróslik)a hobbit
- ха́флинг (xáfling)a hobbit
Spanish mediano
- medianoa hobbit
Swedish halvkarl, halvlängdsman
- halvkarla hobbit
- halvlängdsmana hobbit
- halvmana hobbit
- halvmänninga hobbit
- halvmänniskaa hobbit
- bastarda hobbit
- dvärga hobbit
- krymplinga hobbit
Rhymes & wordplay
Anagrams
Cite this entry
halfling. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/halfling
“halfling.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/halfling. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “halfling,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/halfling.
Source: halfling on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.