Etymology
From Late Latin orphanus, from Ancient Greek ὀρφανός (orphanos, “without parents, fatherless”), from Proto-Indo-European *Hórbʰo-. Cognate with Sanskrit अर्भ (árbha), Latin orbus (“orphaned”), Old High German erbi, arbi (German Erbe (“heir”)), Old English ierfa (“heir”). More at erf.
Pronunciation
Noun
orphan (plural orphans)
- A person, especially a minor, both or (rarely) one of whose parents have died.
- 1956, Delano Ames, chapter 9, 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 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.
- (computing) Any unreferenced object.
Derived terms
Terms derived from "orphan"
Translations
person whose (parent or) parents have died
- Afrikaans: weeskind (af)
- Albanian: jetim (sq) m, jetime (sq) f ; bonjak (sq) m, bonjake (sq) f
- Arabic: يتيم (ar) (yatiim) m
- Armenian: որբ (hy) (orb)
- Old Armenian: որբ (orb)
- Azeri: yetim (az)
- Bashkir: етем (yetem), йәтим (yätim)
- Bengali: তিম (bn) (etim)
- Bulgarian: сирак (bg) (sirak)
- Catalan: orfe (ca) m, òrfena (ca) f
- Chamicuro: wakcha
- Chinese:
- Mandarin: 孤兒 (cmn), 孤儿 (cmn) (gū'ér)
- Czech: sirotek (cs) m
- Danish: forældreløst barn (da) n, hittebarn (da) n
- Dutch: wees (nl) m and f, weeskind (nl) n, weesjongen (nl) m, weesmeisje (nl) n,
- Egyptian: 𓏏𓆑𓈖𓅪𓀀 (tfn)
- Esperanto: (♂) orfo (eo), (♀) orfino (eo)
- Estonian: orb (et), vaeslaps (et)
- Faroese: foreldraloysingur (fo)
- Finnish: orpo (fi)
- French: orphelin (fr) m, orpheline (fr) f
- Old French: orfelin m
- Georgian: ობოლი (ka) (oboli)
- German: (♂♀) Waise (de) f, (both parents dead, ♂♀) Vollwaise (de) f, (one parent dead, ♂♀) Halbwaise (de) f, (♂♀) Waisenkind (de) n, Waisenknabe (de) m, Waisenjunge (de) m, (♀) Waisenmädchen (de) n, Elternloser (de) m, Elternlose (de) f
- Gothic: 𐍅𐌹𐌳𐌿𐍅𐌰𐌹𐍂𐌽𐌰 (widuwaírna) m
- Greek: ορφανός (el) (orfanós) m, (colloquial, when both parents are dead) πεντάρφανος (el) (pentárfanos) m
- Haitian Creole: òfelen
- Hebrew: יָתוֹם (he) (yatóm) m, יְתוֹמָה (he) (yetomá) f
- Hindi: अनाथ (hi) (anāth) m, यतीम (hi) (yatim) m
- Hungarian: árva (hu)
- Icelandic: munaðarleysingi (is) m
- Ido: (♂♀) orfano (io), (♂) orfanulo (io), (♂♀) orfanino (io)
- Indonesian: anak yatim (id)
- Irish: dílleachta (ga)
- Italian: orfano (it) m, orfana (it) f
- Japanese: 孤児 (ja) (こじ, koji)
- Korean: 고아 (ko) (goa)
- Kurdish:
- Sorani: ههتیو (ku)
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- Latin: orbus (la) m, orba (la) f
- Latvian: bārenis (lv)
- Lithuanian: našlaitis (lt)
- Livonian: joutõm läpš, bōŗ läpš
- Luhya: omufubi
- Manx: treoghan (gv)
- Maori: pani (mi)
- Mongolian: енчин (mn) (enčin)
- Norwegian: foreldreløst barn (no) n
- Ossetian: сидзæр (sidzær)
- Ottoman Turkish: يتيم (yatim)
- Papiamentu: wérfano
- Persian: یتیم (fa) (yatim)
- Polish: sierota (pl) f, sierotka (pl) f (diminutive)
- Portuguese: órfão (pt) m, órfã (pt) f
- Romanian: orfan (ro) m, orfană (ro) f
- Russian: сирота (ru) (sirotá) m and f
- Scottish Gaelic: dìlleachd (gd) m, dìlleachdan (gd) m, tàcharan (gd) m
- Serbian:
- Cyrillic: сиро̀че (sh) n, сиро̀та̄н (sh) m, сиро̀та (sh) f, сѝра̄к (sh) m, сирота́нче (sh) n, сиро̀тица (sh) f
- Roman: siròče (sh) n, siròtān (sh) m, siròta (sh) f, sìrāk (sh) m, sirotánče (sh) n, siròtica (sh) f
- Slovak: sirota (sk)
- Spanish: huérfano (es) m, huérfana (es) f
- Swahili: mfiwa (sw), mtoto yatima (sw)
- Swedish: föräldralöst barn (sv) n
- Tagalog: ulila (tl)
- Taos: pènku’úna
- Telugu: అనాధ (te) (anaadha)
- Thai: เด็กกำพร้า (th) (dèk gam práa)
- Turkish: yetim (tr)
- Ukrainian: сирота (uk) (syrotá)
- Urdu: اناتھ (ur) (anāth) m, یتیم (ur) (yatīm) m
- Vietnamese: đứa trẻ mồ côi (vi), mồ côi (vi)
- Volapük: (♂♀) nenpalan (vo), (♂) hinenpalan (vo), (♀) jinenpalan (vo), (♂♀) nenpalanöpan (vo), (♂) hinenpalanöpan (vo), (♀) jinenpalanöpan (vo)
- Welsh: amddifad (cy)
- Yiddish: יתום (yi) (yosem) m, יתומה (yi) (yesoyme) f
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Adjective
orphan (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.
Related terms
Verb
orphan (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 unlinking the last remaining pointer to.
- When you removed that image tag, you orphaned the resized icon.
- Removing categories orphans pages from the main category tree.
References
- "orphan" at OneLook® Dictionary Search.