A waif is a living creature removed, by hardship, loss or other helpless
circumstance, from its original surroundings. The most common usage of
the word is to designate a homeless, forsaken or orphaned child, or someone
whose appearance is evocative of the same.
As such, the term is similar to a ragamuffin or street urchin, although
the main distinction is volitional: a runaway youth might live on the streets,
but would not properly be called a waif as the departure from one's home was an
exercise of free will. Likewise, a person fleeing their home for purposes
of safety, is typically considered not a waif but a refugee.
Literature Orphaned children, left to fend for
themselves, are common as literary protagonists, especially in children's
and fantasy literature. The characters Heathcliff in Emily Brontë's 1847 novel
Wuthering Heights and Jo, the crossing sweeper in Charles Dickens' 1852 novel
Bleak House are waifs. Dickens, it may be noted, has been called "the Master of
Waif Literature." Bret Harte's 1890 novel A Waif of the Plains, set against
the backdrop of the Oregon Trail in the 1850s, is another example. The children
in A Series of Unfortunate Events are usually waifs, in between their
unsuccessful stints in the care of various relatives. In modern adult
fantasy writing, it could be argued that Kvothe of Patrick Rothfuss's The
Kingkiller Chronicle was a waif, and the stories include many flashback elements
– as they are of Kvothe's life told by Kvothe – to the time when he indeed was
a waif. Literary waifs are frequently depicted
with a frail appearance, although such physical aspects are not inherent in the
term. Such evocations may reflect the endemic malnutrition of the street
urchin. Chicago's Mercy Home for Boys and Girls,
a long-term residential home for troubled young men and women from the
streets and abusive homes, has published The Waif's Messenger for more than 100
years. There was a cartoon waif, which was also
known as a cartoon orphan boy, which he appeared in the 1936 Rainbow Parade
cartoon A Waif's Welcome. Nautical
In nautical terms, a waif is any survivor of a shipwreck compelled to
make land upon a foreign shore. In this sense waif is roughly synonymous with
castaway, although the latter term is generally associated with isolation; a
waif usually indicates a survivor of a marine disaster who has fallen into the
care or custody of others. "Some seven years ago...there appeared
the remarkable saga of Manjiro, the shipwrecked Japanese waif who was
rescued and brought to the United States by a Yankee whaling captain."
Legal Dating from the Middle Ages, when a
woman was proscribed and subjected to penalties of outlawry, she was said to
be “waived” and called a "waif". This waiving of the law was tantamount to
outlawry since it removed all protection of the law. Women in this status were
outside of the "law", and others could kill them on sight as if they were wild
animals. Under British common law, items stolen
by a thief and discarded during the thief's flight are "waifs." The monarch
owns such waifs by royal prerogative. Music
References to waifs in music are sometimes self-deprecating, as in the
name of the Australian folk-rock band The Waifs, or Tracy Bonham's song "I'm
Not a Waif". Many other songs use the word "waif" to
romanticize street children and runaways, as in the Marc Almond song
"Waifs and Strays", or the Steely Dan song "Janie Runaway", which describes
the title character as being the "wonderwaif of Gramercy Park".
Botany In botany, a "waif" is an unusual
species found in the wild that is alien and either a) is unsuccessful at
reproduction without human intervention, or b) only persists a few generations
and disappears. Such a plant never gets "naturalized" in the wild. "Waif flora"
also refers to plant species which occur on oceanic islands due to chance
long-distance dispersion of seeds. Fashion
In fashion and related popular culture, the term "waif" is commonly used to
describe a very thin person, usually a woman.
"The waif look" was used in the 1960s to describe thin, large-eyed models such as
Twiggy, Edie Sedgwick and Dorothee Bis. The "gamine" look of the 1950s,
associated with actresses like Audrey Hepburn, Leslie Caron and Jean Seberg,
was, to some extent, a precursor. The term "waif" was seemingly ubiquitous
in the 1990s, with heroin chic fashion and models like Kate Moss and Jaime King
on the runways and in advertisements. Actresses like Ally McBeal star Calista
Flockhart, Winona Ryder, recently the British actress Keira Knightley and
singer Celine Dion have all been pinned with the term.
Although the heroin chic look has gone out of fashion, it still holds some
popularity in Hollywood. For example, Wonderbra model Eva Herzigova was
criticized over her waif-like figure. Daily Mirror columnist Sue Carroll
wrote: The supermodel, looking like a throwback
to the 'heroin chic' era of waif-like undernourished models, was an X-ray of
her old self, skeletally thin with greasy hair, blue lips, a cold sore and
sunken eyes. References