Orpheline

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /ˈɔː(ɹ)fəlɪn/

Definitions

1. A child who has lost both parents and is thus without parental support struggles to find stability in their life
2. A young person who no longer has either parent alive and lacks parental care
3. An individual below adulthood whose mother and father are both deceased and is without family guardians

Etymology: Borrowing this term from French gives English the feminine form of "orphelin," the French word for a child who has lost its parents. The English noun keeps the French spelling and sound, so it reads as a deliberate import rather than a native formation, and it is far rarer than its everyday cousin "orphan." That cousin comes from Greek "orphanos," which meant "bereft" or "deprived" and could be applied broadly to anyone missing something important. Latin took the word as "orphanus," and it reached French as "orphelin," which was later altered in spelling to match the Latin source. Over time the sense narrowed to children who had lost their parents, and that is the only sense this French-derived noun carries in English.

Synonyms: orphan