childship Now rare.
(ˈtʃaɪldʃɪp)
[f. child n. + -ship; cf. sonship. (App. formed to render St. Paul's υἱοθεσία.)]
1. The relationship of child to parent; the attainment of this status, filiation, adoption.
| 1535 Coverdale Rom. viii. 23 We..grone within in oure selues for the Childshippe. 1613 T. Adams Pract. Wks. (1862) III. 101 God's actual choice, and our potential childship. 1662 J. Sparrow tr. Behmen's Rem. Wks., Def. agst. Rickter 19 It attaineth not the divine Childship, or Filiation. 1765 Law tr. Behmen's Myst. Magnum xl. (1772) 232 The inherited Adoption or Childship. 1886 Westcott St. John's Ep. 17 Love is the sign of divine childship. |
† 2. second childship: = ‘second childhood’. Obs.
| 1691 Wood Ath. Oxon. II. 646 Reduced to his second childship..his memory was quite decayed. |