Half-orphan

Benjamin Zimmer bgzimmer at RCI.RUTGERS.EDU
Tue Jun 7 18:34:32 UTC 2005


On Tue, 7 Jun 2005 09:32:34 -0400, Wilson Gray <wilson.gray at RCN.COM> wrote:

>On Jun 6, 2005, at 12:16 PM, Benjamin Barrett wrote:
>> This word, suggested by Wayne Leman on the lexicography list is missing
>> from the OED and AHD. It means a child who has lost one parent.
>
>Being a half-orphan myself, I'm surprised, indeed, shocked to see that
>neither the AHD nor the OED has the word. Sigh! The only thing worse
>than failing to be the first to post a "new" word is posting a "new"
>word and discovering that it can be traced to Beowulf.

It is indeed a curious oversight, considering that the databases have
numerous attestations back to the mid-19th century. Here's the earliest
from APS:

-----
_The Friend_, Feb. 3, 1838, p. 143, col. 3
First Annual Report of the [New York] Association for the Benefit of
Coloured Orphans.
...
The number of orphans has been gradually increased, and the managers now
have it in their power to congratulate their benefactors on having
extended their fostering care to twenty-nine destitute children. Several
of this number are half-orphans, who have been admitted on the same terms
required in the Half-Orphan Asylum.
-----


--Ben Zimmer



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