waif

Meanings

Noun

• Often in the form waif and stray, waifs and strays: an article of movable property found of which the owner is not known, such as goods washed up on a beach or thrown away by an absconding thief; such items belong to the Crown, which may grant the right of ownership to them to a lord of a manor.
• A small flag used as a signal.
• Something (such as clouds or smoke) carried aloft by the wind.

Verb

• To be cast aside or rejected, and thus become a waif.

Origin

• The noun is derived from Late Middle English weif, from Anglo-Norman waif, weif (compare Anglo-Latin waivum, Medieval Latin waivium), possibly from Old French waif, a variant of gaif, gayf , probably from a North Germanic source such as Old Norse veif, from Proto-Germanic *waif-, from Proto-Indo-European *weyp-.
• The verb is derived from the noun.
• Possibly from Old Norse veif; see further at etymology 1.
• Unknown; possibly related to the following words:
• waff , a variant of waive (etymology 2) or wave (see further at those entries).
• Middle English wef, weffe, possibly a variant of either:
• ** waf, waif, waife,, possibly from waven, from Old English wafian, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *webʰ-; or
• ** wef, from weven; further etymology uncertain, perhaps from Old English wefan (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *webʰ-), or from -wǣfan (see bewǣfan, ymbwǣfan).