waif
pronunciation
How to pronounce waif in British English:
UK [weɪf]
How to pronounce waif in American English:
US [wef]
-
- Noun:
- a homeless child especially one forsaken or orphaned
Word Origin
- waif (n.)
- late 14c., "unclaimed property, flotsam, stray animal," from Anglo-French waif (13c., Old French guaif) "ownerless property, something lost;" as an adjective, "not claimed, outcast, abandoned," probably from a Scandinavian source akin to Old Norse veif "waving thing, flag," from Proto-Germanic *waif-, from PIE *weip- "to turn, vacillate, tremble ecstatically" (see vibrate). Compare Medieval Latin waivium "thing thrown away by a thief in flight." A Scottish/northern English parallel form was wavenger (late 15c.). Meaning "person (especially a child) without home or friends" first attested 1784, from legal phrase waif and stray (1620s), from the adjective in the sense "lost, strayed, homeless." Neglected children being uncommonly thin, the word tended toward this sense. Connotations of "fashionable, small, slender woman" began 1991 with application to childishly slim supermodels such as Kate Moss.
Example
- 1. I am a poor hungry waif . Feed me .
- 2. There she sat , huddled up , like a waif .
- 3. A waif is begging on the street .
- 4. Waif like and half starved .
- 5. All her images of a tiny waif locked in the attic seemed suddenly foolish and fantastic .