Etymology: Old English (late West Saxon) chylder < cielder (Anglian) cęldu, < West Germanic type *kaldî, *keldî, < kald cold. (Or it may have been analogically formed in Old English, after yldu, ęldu, stręngu, and the other abstract nouns of this class.)
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1889; most recently modified version published online March 2021).