waif
English
Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “waif”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)
Etymology
From Middle English weif, from Anglo-Norman waif, possibly from Old French waif, variant of gayf (“stray; wandering; vagabond”), probably from a North Germanic source such as Old Norse veif (“flag, waving thing”), from Proto-Germanic *waif-, from (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Proto-Indo-European *weib-, *weip- (“to oscillate, swing”).
Pronunciation
Noun
waif (plural waifs)
- A castaway; a homeless child.
- 1912: Edgar Rice Burroughs, Tarzan of the Apes, Chapter 5
- Tenderly Kala nursed her little waif, wondering silently why it did not gain strength and agility as did the little apes of other mothers. It was nearly a year from the time the little fellow came into her possession before he would walk alone, and as for climbing--my, but how stupid he was!
- 1912: Edgar Rice Burroughs, Tarzan of the Apes, Chapter 5
- (botany, of a plant outside its native range) A plant that has been introduced but is not persistently naturalized.
- (obsolete) Goods found of which the owner is not known; originally, such goods as a pursued thief threw away to prevent being apprehended, which belonged to the king unless the owner made pursuit of the felon, took him, and brought him to justice.
- (obsolete) Hence, anything found, or without an owner; that which comes along, as it were, by chance.
Related terms
Translations
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See also
Middle English
Noun
waif
- Alternative form of weif
- English terms inherited from Middle English
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms derived from Anglo-Norman
- English terms derived from Old French
- English terms derived from North Germanic languages
- English terms derived from Proto-Germanic
- English terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- English 1-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- Rhymes:English/eɪf
- English terms with audio links
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- en:Botany
- English terms with obsolete senses
- Middle English lemmas
- Middle English nouns