
[Middle English, from Late Latin orphanus, from Greek orphanos, orphaned.]
orphanhood or'phan·hood' n.A "widow" is the last line of a paragraph that appears alone at the top of the next page, and an "orphan" is the first line of a paragraph that appears alone at the bottom of a page. Default widow and orphan settings are typically configured for two lines in order to prevent isolated single lines.
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n.
A living person whom death has deprived of the power of filial ingratitude -- a privation appealing with a particular eloquence to all that is sympathetic in human nature. When young the orphan is commonly sent to an asylum, where by careful cultivation of its rudimentary sense of locality it is taught to know its place. It is then instructed in the arts of dependence and servitude and eventually turned loose to prey upon the world as a bootblack or scullery maid.
After the terrible tragedy, he was left an orphan.
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The orphan is a symbol of an unwanted, unloved child, one who is needy, misunderstood, and abused by strict, un-nurturing people who exert merciless control and authority. This symbol may represent childhood memories and fears of being abandoned. The dreamer may be resisting inner needs to be childlike, or be emotionally cold and withdrawn from others who are close to the dreamer.
A newborn animal without a dam.

| Look up orphan in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. |
An orphan (from the Greek ὀρφανός[1]) is a child permanently bereaved of or abandoned by his or her parents.[2][3] 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.
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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".[4]
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.[5] This contrasts with the older use of half-orphan to describe children that had lost only one parent.[6]
Orphans are relatively rare in developed countries, as most children can expect both of their parents to survive their childhood. Much higher numbers of orphans exist in war-torn nations such as Afghanistan.
| Continent | Number of orphans (1000s) |
Orphans as percentage of all children |
|---|---|---|
| Africa | 34,294 | 11.9% |
| Asia | 65,504 | 6.5% |
| Latin America & Caribbean | 8,166 | 7.4% |
| Total | 107,964 | 7.6% |
Famous orphans include world leaders such as Nelson Mandela and Andrew Jackson; the Muslim prophet Mohammed; writers such as Edgar Allan Poe, and Leo Tolstoy. The American orphan Henry Darger portrayed the horrible conditions of his orphanage in his art work. Other notable orphans include entertainment greats such as Louis Armstrong, Marilyn Monroe, Babe Ruth, Ray Charles and Frances McDormand, and innumerable fictional characters in literature and comics.
Wars and great epidemics,such as AIDS, have created many orphans. World War Two, with its massive numbers of deaths and population movements created large numbers of orphans—with estimates for Europe ranging from 1,000,000 to 13,000,000. Judt (2006) estimates there were 9,000 orphaned children in Czechoslovakia, 60,000 in the Netherlands 300,000 in Poland and 200,000 in Yugoslavia, plus many more in the Soviet Union, Germany, Italy and elsewhere.[10]
Orphaned characters are extremely common as literary protagonists, especially in children's and fantasy literature.[11] The lack of parents leaves the characters to pursue more interesting and adventurous lives, by freeing them from familial obligations and controls, and depriving them of more prosaic lives. It creates characters that are self-contained and introspective and who strive for affection. Orphans can metaphorically search for self-understanding through attempting to know their roots. Parents can also be allies and sources of aid for children, and removing the parents makes the character's difficulties more severe. Parents, furthermore, can be irrelevant to the theme a writer is trying to develop, and orphaning the character frees the writer from the necessity to depict such an irrelevant relationship; if one parent-child relationship is important, removing the other parent prevents complicating the necessary relationship. All these characteristics make orphans attractive characters for authors.
Orphans are common in fairy tales, such as most variants of Cinderella.
A number of well-known authors have written books featuring orphans. Examples from classic literature include Charlotte Brontë, Charles Dickens, Mark Twain's Tom Sawyer, L. M. Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables books, Thomas Hardy's Jude the Obscure, and J. R. R. Tolkien. Among more recent authors, A. J. Cronin, Lemony Snicket, Roald Dahl, J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter series, as well as some less well-known authors of famous orphans like Little Orphan Annie have used orphans as major characters. One recurring storyline has been the relationship that the orphan can have with an adult from outside his or her immediate family as seen in Lyle Kessler's play Orphans.
Many religious texts, including the Bible and the Quran, contain the idea that helping and defending orphans is a very important and God-pleasing matter. Two of the most important religious leaders, Moses and Muhammad, were orphaned as children. Several scriptural citations describe how orphans should be treated:
Bible
Quran
This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
Dansk (Danish)
n. - forældreløst barn
v. tr. - gøre forældreløs
adj. - forældreløs
Français (French)
n. - orphelin
v. tr. - rendre orphelin
adj. - orphelin
Deutsch (German)
n. - Waise, Waisenkind
v. - zur Waise machen
adj. - Waisen...
Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - ορφανό
v. - απορφανίζω
Português (Portuguese)
n. - órfão (m)
v. - orfanar
Español (Spanish)
n. - huérfano
v. tr. - quedar huérfano, dejar huérfano
adj. - huérfano
Svenska (Swedish)
n. - föräldralöst barn
v. - lämna föräldralöst
中文(简体)(Chinese (Simplified))
孤儿, 失去母兽的小动物, 使成孤儿, 无双亲的, 孤儿的
中文(繁體)(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 孤兒, 失去母獸的小動物
v. tr. - 使成孤兒
adj. - 無雙親的, 孤兒的
한국어 (Korean)
n. - 고아, 구변 좋음
v. tr. - 고아로 만들다
adj. - 부모가 없는, 고아를 위한
日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 孤児, 片親のない子
adj. - 親のない, 孤児のための, 孤児の
v. - 孤児にする
العربيه (Arabic)
(الاسم) يتيم (فعل) يجعله يتيما
עברית (Hebrew)
n. - יתום, אדם שנלקחו ממנו יתרונות שהיו לו, שורה ראשונה של קטע המודפסת בתחתית העמוד
v. tr. - שכל הורה או הורים (ילד)
adj. - יתום, של יתומים, לא נתמך או ממומן, לא חלק ממערכת, מבודד, נטוש
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