orphan
English
editAlternative forms
editEtymology
editLate Middle English, from Late Latin orphanus, from Ancient Greek ὀρφανός (orphanós, “without parents, fatherless”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₃órbʰos.
PIE word |
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*h₃órbʰos |
Cognate with Sanskrit अर्भ (árbha), Latin orbus (“orphaned”), Old High German erbi, arbi (German Erbe (“heir”)), Old English ierfa (“heir”). More at erf.
Pronunciation
edit- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˈɔːfən/
- (General American) IPA(key): /ˈɔɹfən/
- (dialectal, archaic) IPA(key): /ˈɔːɹfənt/ (see orphant)
Audio (US): (file) - Rhymes: -ɔː(ɹ)fən
- Homophone: often (non-rhotic, lot–cloth split)
Noun
editorphan (plural orphans)
- A person, especially a minor, both or (rarely) one of whose parents have died.
- 1956, Delano Ames, chapter 9, in Crime out of Mind[1]:
- Rudolf was the bold, bad Baron of traditional melodrama. Irene was young, as pretty as a picture, fresh from a music academy in England. He was the scion of an ancient noble family; she an orphan without money or friends.
- A person, especially a minor, whose parents have permanently abandoned them.
- A young animal with no mother.
- (figuratively) Anything that is unsupported, as by its source, provider or caretaker, by reason of the supporter's demise or decision to abandon.
- (typography) A single line of type, beginning a paragraph, at the bottom of a column or page.
- Antonym: widow
- (computing) Any unreferenced object.
- 2003, David D. Riley, The Object of Data Abstraction and Structures Using Java, page 234:
- An orphan isn't harmful in a language that has garbage collection, such as Java. However, reducing the number of orphans can be expected to improve code performance.
Derived terms
edit- double orphan
- half-orphan
- half orphan
- maternal orphan
- orphanage
- orphan asylum
- orphancy
- orphan disease
- orphandom
- orphan drug
- orphaner
- orphanet
- orphanhood
- orphan initialism
- orphanism
- orphanity
- orphanize
- orphan John
- orphan medicine
- orphanotrophism
- orphanotrophy
- orphan page
- orphan receptor
- orphanry
- orphanship
- orphan source
- orphan star
- orphan train
- orphan work
- orphany
- paper orphan
- paternal orphan
- social orphan
- war orphan
Translations
editperson whose (parent or) parents have died
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single line of type at the bottom of page
|
Adjective
editorphan (not comparable)
- Deprived of parents (also orphaned).
- She is an orphan child.
- (by extension, figuratively) Remaining after the removal of some form of support.
- With its government funding curtailed, the gun registry became an orphan program.
Derived terms
editRelated terms
editTranslations
editdeprived of parents
Verb
editorphan (third-person singular simple present orphans, present participle orphaning, simple past and past participle orphaned)
- (transitive) To deprive of parents (used almost exclusively in the passive)
- What do you do when you come across two orphaned polar bear cubs?
- (transitive, computing) To make unavailable, as by removing the last remaining pointer or reference to.
- When you removed that image tag, you orphaned the resized icon.
- Removing categories orphans pages from the main category tree.
Conjugation
editConjugation of orphan
infinitive | (to) orphan | ||
---|---|---|---|
present tense | past tense | ||
1st-person singular | orphan | orphaned | |
2nd-person singular | orphan, orphanest† | orphaned, orphanedst† | |
3rd-person singular | orphans, orphaneth† | orphaned | |
plural | orphan | ||
subjunctive | orphan | orphaned | |
imperative | orphan | — | |
participles | orphaning | orphaned |
Derived terms
editTranslations
editdeprive of parents
References
edit- Jones, M. Jean (1973 August) The Regional English of the Former Inhabitants of Cades Cove in the Great Smoky Mountains[2], University of Tennessee, Knoxville, page 114
- “orphan”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
- Orphan in the Encyclopædia Britannica (11th edition, 1911)
Anagrams
editCategories:
- English terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- English terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *h₃erbʰ-
- English terms inherited from Middle English
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms derived from Late Latin
- English terms derived from Ancient Greek
- English terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European word *h₃órbʰos
- English 2-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio links
- Rhymes:English/ɔː(ɹ)fən
- Rhymes:English/ɔː(ɹ)fən/2 syllables
- English terms with homophones
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- English terms with quotations
- en:Typography
- en:Computing
- English adjectives
- English uncomparable adjectives
- English terms with usage examples
- English verbs
- English transitive verbs
- English autohyponyms
- en:Stock characters
- en:Family
- en:Children
- en:People