orphan
English
Etymology
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From Late Latin orphanus, from Ancient Greek ὀρφανός (orphanós, “without parents, fatherless”), from Proto-Indo-European *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
- Lua error in Module:parameters at line 360: Parameter 1 should be a valid language or etymology language code; the value "RP" is not valid. See WT:LOL and WT:LOL/E. IPA(key): /ˈɔːfən/
- Lua error in Module:parameters at line 360: Parameter 1 should be a valid language or etymology language code; the value "GA" is not valid. See WT:LOL and WT:LOL/E. IPA(key): /ˈɔɹfən/
Audio (US): (file) - Rhymes: -ɔː(ɹ)fən
- Homophone: often (older RP)
Noun
orphan (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.
- (computing) Any unreferenced object.
Derived terms
Translations
person whose (parent or) parents have died
|
young animal with no mother
anything unsupported
|
single line of type at the bottom of page
|
computing: unreferenced object
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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 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
Conjugation of orphan
infinitive | (to) orphan | ||
---|---|---|---|
present tense | past tense | ||
1st-person singular | orphan | orphaned | |
2nd-person singular | |||
3rd-person singular | orphans | ||
plural | orphan | ||
subjunctive | orphan | orphaned | |
imperative | orphan | — | |
participles | orphaning | orphaned |
References
- "orphan" at OneLook Dictionary Search.
- Template:projectlink
Anagrams
Categories:
- English terms derived from Late Latin
- English terms derived from Ancient Greek
- English terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- English 2-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio pronunciation
- Rhymes:English/ɔː(ɹ)fən
- 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
- en:Family
- en:Children
- en:People