waif

• n.放浪者；浮浪者；漂流者；土地を奪われた者；信号旗

PIE *weipの「揺らす、揺れる」が語源で、語源的にはwipe, vibrateと同じ。派生語彙は浮遊物、無縁物、放浪動物などを意味し、後に主にホームレスの子供、放浪者を指すようになった。

waif (n.)

late 14c., "unclaimed property, flotsam, stray animal," from Anglo-French waif (13c., Old French guaif) "ownerless property, something lost;" as an adjective, "not claimed, outcast, abandoned," probably from a Scandinavian source akin to Old Norse veif "waving thing, flag," from Proto-Germanic *waif-, from PIE *weip- "to turn, vacillate, tremble ecstatically" (see vibrate). Compare Medieval Latin waivium "thing thrown away by a thief in flight." A Scottish/northern English parallel form was wavenger (late 15c.).

Meaning "person (especially a child) without home or friends" first attested 1784, from legal phrase waif and stray (1620s), from the adjective in the sense "lost, strayed, homeless." Neglected children being uncommonly thin, the word tended toward this sense. Connotations of "fashionable, small, slender woman" began 1991 with application to childishly slim supermodels such as Kate Moss.

1. The director wants a waif -like，teenage girl with long，dark hair for the role.

監督は、真っ黒な長髪を残し、黄身でやせた10代の女の子にこの役を演じてほしいと思っている。

2.Maybe I should play this needy，despondent waif card more often.

この迷いを使って、マルチニーズの看板を使うべきかもしれません。

3.Found a helpless waif .

彼はまだ助からない赤ん坊だ。

4.A waif is begging on the street.

街でホームレスが物乞いをしている。

5.They looked thin, waif -like and starved.

彼らはやせて天涯孤独で、放浪児のように飢えて半死にした。