the.com/orphan
proof that the smallest people carry the heaviest stories and somehow still grow up.
means A child whose parents have both died, or sometimes one — and, by extension, anything left alone and unsupported, like a single line of text stranded at the bottom of a page.
from From Greek 'orphanos,' meaning bereft or fatherless, which traveled through Latin 'orphanus' into Old French and then English. The Greek root reaches back to an ancient Indo-European word for 'deprived' — possibly a cousin of Latin 'orbus' (bereaved) and even of words meaning 'labor' or 'inheritance,' the idea being one who has lost what was owed to them. The typographic 'orphan' — a lonely word or line cut off from its paragraph — borrows the same ache much later.
- Typography
- A lone word stranded atop a page is also called an orphan.
- Annie
- Broadway's red-haired orphan ran over 2,000 performances.
- Famous ranks
- Aristotle, Tolstoy, and Steve Jobs all lost parents young.
- Space orphans
- Rogue planets drift starless, orphaned from any sun.
- Etymology
- From Greek orphanos, meaning bereft or deprived.
annie — musical and film about orphan annie in depression-era new york, debuted 1977
oliver twist — dickens novel following orphan boy in 1800s london, published 1838
skid row orphans — los angeles street children documented in 1980s-90s crisis