Other forms: hirelings
A hireling is somebody who works only for the money. A mere hireling, hirelings and mercenaries, dismissed as a hireling.
It is always contemptuous, and the contempt is about loyalty rather than payment, since everybody is paid. The biblical parable of the hireling who runs when the wolf comes is where the flavour of the word begins.
1nounhirelingSomebody who works only for the money.
“The king didn't trust the foreign soldiers, calling them hirelings who would change sides for better pay.”
hireling is a worker.
Old English hyrling comes from hyr, hire, plus the ending -ling.
Proto-West Germanic
*hūʀijuling
Old English
hȳrling — hireling, employee
Middle English
hirlyng
English, today
hireling
From Middle English hirlyng, from Old English hȳrling (“hireling, employee”), from Proto-West Germanic hūʀijuling. Cognate with West Frisian hierling, Dutch huurling (“hireling, mercenary”), German Low German Hüürling, German Heuerling. By surface analysis, hire + ling.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA
Practised in A Song of Ice and Fire