A recent episode in the TV series The Midsomer Murders was entitled ‘Bantling Boy’. It seemed a good name for a greyhound, but Bantling turned out to be a family name and was given the meaning of ‘bastard’, particularly in heraldic language. The meaning of bantling proved significant to the plot.
Unusual to find one of tsuwm’s wwftds in a TV episode title! At least I think it is.
Bantling. A child. Mahn suggests the German, bänkling, a bastard. (Query, bandling, a little one in swaddling-clothes.)
From Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable
