Foundling

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. An infant abandoned by its parents, often taken in and cared for by others
2. a child without known parental ties, typically raised by another family or institution
3. a young one discovered without guardianship, often supported by charitable organizations or communities

Etymology: "Foundling" is a plain compound: the verb "find" in its past participle form "found," plus the suffix "-ling," which marks a young or small thing. A "foundling" is literally something found, and in the earliest English usage the term was applied to a found object or a lost creature rather than only to an abandoned infant. The suffix "-ling" is the same one that appears in "duckling" and "gosling," so the word's structure is transparent in a way that many English words are not. The Middle English form "foundelyng" shows the word already taking its modern sense of a child with no known parents, though the history of its meaning is more straightforward than its appearance suggests. Because the word's parts are so visible, its origin is easy to reconstruct, and it did not pass through Latin or French the way many formal English words did.

Synonyms: orphan, abandoned child