Word of the Day

: April 9, 2010

waif

noun WAYF

What It Means

1 a : a piece of property found (as washed up by the sea) but unclaimed

b : stolen goods thrown away by a thief in flight

2 a : something found without an owner and especially by chance

b : a stray person or animal; especially : a homeless child

waif in Context

The book is about a charming 10-year-old waif who embarks on a series of adventures with a scruffy canine sidekick.

Did You Know?

Today's "waif" came from Anglo-French "waif," meaning "stray" or "unclaimed," and, further back, probably from a Scandinavian ancestor. It entered English in the 14th century and was followed approximately a century later by another "waif," this one meaning "a pennant or flag used to signal or to show wind direction," which English speakers derived independently, possibly from the same Scandinavian word. In its earliest uses, today's word referred to a piece of unclaimed property. It eventually developed other extended meanings before acquiring the "stray person or animal" sense. The skinny appearance typical of waifs resulted in the word being applied to people with skinny body types, beginning in the 1980s, though this sense hasn't yet found a home on the pages of our dictionaries.