orphan

Definition of orphan

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 arabeit (German Arbeit).

Pronunciation

• Audio (US) ^[?]
• Rhymes: -�"ː(r)fən

Noun

orphan (plural orphans)

1. A person, especially a minor, both or (rarely) one of whose parents have died.
2. (figuratively) Anything that is unsupported, as by its source, provider or caretaker, by reason of the supporter's demise or decision to abandon.

Adjective

orphan (not comparable)

1. Deprived of parents (also orphaned).
   
   She is an orphan child.
   
   
2. (by extension, figuratively) Remaining after the removal of some form of support.
   
   With its government funding curtailed, the gun registry became an orphan program.

Verb

orphan (third-person singular simple present orphans, present participle orphaning, simple past and past participle orphaned)

1. (transitive) To deprive of parents (used almost exclusively in the passive)
   
   What do you do when you come across two orphaned polar bear cubs?

Further reading

An orphan is a child permanently bereaved of or abandoned by his or her parents. In common usage, only a child (or the young of an animal) who has lost both parents is called an orphan. However, adults can also be referred to as orphans, or "adult orphans".

In certain animal species where the father typically abandons the mother and young at or prior to birth, the young will be called orphans when the mother dies regardless of the condition of the father.

Definitions

Various groups use different definitions to identify orphans. One legal definition used in the United States is a minor bereft through "death or disappearance of, abandonment or desertion by, or separation or loss from, both parents".

In the common use, an orphan does not have any surviving parent to care for him or her. However, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), Joint United Nations Programme on HIV and AIDS (UNAIDS), and other groups label any child that has lost one parent as an orphan. In this approach, a maternal orphan is a child whose mother has died, a paternal orphan is a child whose father has died, and a double orphan has lost both parents. This contrasts with the older use of half-orphan to describe children that had lost only one parent.