regshoe

A gosling is a baby goose, a starling is...not a baby star. : ) Why does it have a diminutive suffix?

Heh, I had not actually noticed that...! Well, according to the OED the '-ling' in 'starling' is probably the one meaning 'connected to' or 'described by' (as in 'hireling', 'youngling', etc.—and I suppose 'nestling' and 'fledgeling'!), rather than the diminutive one. Although the 'star' bit is the same word as in Swedish, and since it already referred to the bird on its own I'm not sure why the Anglo-Saxons thought the suffix was necessary. A nice etymological mystery.

(I always thought 'starling' was a very appropriate name because their winter plumage looks like a starry night sky—but I don't think there's any actual connection to 'star').

Ah, now I understand the reference in your email to my FotH stories, because I do remember you were not that into this aspect of my monster AU!

Yes, although to be clear I was also thinking of some things I liked about it :) —like how the characters' attraction to each other comes through in their POV and how their feelings develop in the context of the historical setting.

there's a reason for that title...

Ha, yes! I especially liked the subtleties of how the masters were portrayed—Paxton is a pretty straightforwardly horrible person and treats William badly; Leighland is much nicer and has a genuine respect and trust for Edwin, but it's still pretty clear how less than ideal a situation his having that kind of power over Edwin is.