Orphan (pronounced awr-fuhn)
(1) A person
who has lost one or both parents through death (now usually used only if both
parents have died); term is used only with children or older minors and in
informal use is sometimes extended to an abandoned child.
(2) A young
animal left motherless by death or desertion.
(3) Figuratively,
a person or thing without protective affiliation, sponsorship, etc.
(4) In typography
(applied especially in word processing) the first line of a paragraph when it
appears alone at the bottom of a page.
(5) Figuratively,
something not (or no longer) authorized, supported, or funded; not part of a
system; isolated; abandoned.
(6) In
computing, any unreferenced object or a process, the parent of which has
terminated.
(7) In
medicine, as orphan disease (a rare disease) or orphan drug (something
developed under the US Orphan Drug Act (1983) for orphan diseases.
(8) In
biochemistry, as orphan receptor, apparent receptor that has a similar
structure to other identified receptors but whose endogenous ligand has not yet
been identified.
(9) In
nuclear physics, as orphan source, a self-contained radioactive source that is
no longer under proper regulatory control.
(10) In
the automotive industry, cars still in use built by a manufacturer which has
entirely ceased operations (applied informally also to vehicles produced to
defunct divisions of parent corporations (eg Imperial, Pontiac).
(11) In
the matter of technology, literature and other copyrighted material, something
abandoned by its owner or where the copyright holder is untraceable; in
reference to software the slang term is “abandonware”.
1425–1475:
The noun was from the late Middle English, from the Late Latin orphanus (destitute, without parents),
from orbus (bereaved), from the Ancient
Greek ὀρφανός
(orphanós) (without parents,
fatherless; bereaved (literally “deprived”)), from orphos (bereft), from the primitive Indo-European orbho (bereft of father (also
"deprived of free status”), from the root orbh- (to change allegiance, to pass from one status to another), source
also of the Hittite harb- (change
allegiance), the Sanskrit arbhah (weak,
child), the Armenian orb (orphan),
the Old Irish orbe (heir), the Old
Church Slavonic rabu (slave), the rabota (servitude ( and related to the
modern robot), the Gothic arbja, the German
erbe, the Old English ierfa (heir), the Old High German arabeit, the German Arbeit (work), the Old Frisian arbed
and the Old English earfoð (hardship,
suffering, trouble").. It was cognate
with the Sanskrit अर्भ (árbha), the Latin orbus, (bereaved), the Old High German erbi, & arbi (hence
the German Erbe (heir)) and the Old
English ierfa (heir). The Late Latin orphanós was the source also of the Old French orfeno & orphenin and
the Italian orfano. The extinct alternative spelling was orphane and the plural is orphans.
The
verb use (to reduce to the state of being an orphan) dates from circa 1814. It was used as an adjective from the late fifteenth
century, the figurative use emerging at the same time. The syndicated newspaper cartoon strip Little Orphan Annie (1924-2010) created
by Harold Gray (1894-1968) was originally titled Little Orphant Annie after the title of James Whitcomb Riley's (1849-1916)
1885 poem Little Orphant Allie (though
it was originally titled The Elf Child,
the name was changed by Riley for the third printing; it was a typesetting
error which substituted “orphan” for “orphant”. Orphant was an old, corrupt form of orphan, attested from the
seventeenth century.
The
noun orphanage dates from the 1570s and originally meant “the condition of
being an orphan", the more familiar modern meaning "a home for
orphans" not used until 1850. Other
words for "the condition of being an orphan" have included orphanhood
(1670s), orphancy (1580s), orphanism (1590s) & orphanship (1670s) and in Middle
English there was the mid-fifteenth century orphanite (desolation, wretchedness). The early forms to describe the building in
which orphans were housed were orphan house (1711), orphan-asylum (1796) &
orphanry (1872). Orphanage prevailed
over the others for no good etymological reason (some critics noting homes for
girls weren’t called “girlages”) but despite there being a risk of confusion
with the sixteenth century sense of “the condition of being an orphan", it
was preferred and orphanhood came to be the standard form of description for
the state despite the objection of pedants who insisted the English “-hood”
should never be affixed to a Greek or Roman root; a long-lost battle even
then. The purists had more success in
fighting off "Orphanotrophy" although the less objectionable "Orphanry"
(as in “aviary”), although achieving the tick of approval from the lexicographers,
seems never to have caught on, people presumably not attracted by the alignment
of places for children being linguistically aligned with zoos.
In
antiquity, an orphan was one who had lost both parents but in English use, by
the seventeenth century, the status of orphanhood was afforded to a child who
had lost either. That lead to
constructions which defined the differential state (half-orphan, double orphan,
maternal orphan & paternal orphan and all the classifications were applied
in a variety of ways, on both sides of the Atlantic, matters applying to children
administered usually by local authorities so regional differences were common,
some insisting the status of an orphan was created only upon the death of one
or both parents while in other places desertion was sometimes sufficient. The age at which one could, whatever the
nature of the loss, cease to be regarded as an orphan was also inconsistent
until the modern state evolved but the idea always was it ceased with adulthood
but this tended sometimes to be a functional judgment based on prevailing social
and economic conditions; it could be as young as fourteen at a time when
workforce participation (male and female) was common.
The
modern practice has long been an orphan is a minor who has lost both parents
but UNICEF (the United Nations Children's Fund (originally the United Nations
International Children's Emergency Fund but the name was changed in 1953,
UNICEF retained as the name though no longer technically an acronym), UNAIDS
(the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV and AIDS) and some NGOs (non-governmental organizations) label as an orphan any child who has lost one parent. This is a practical approach which
acknowledges the often severe consequences which follow from the loss of one
parent.
The
verse in the New Testament which imposes on all a duty to care for
orphans is often quoted:
Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and
faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress…"
(James 1:27 (KJV 1611)).
Less
often cited are the passages from the Old Testament in which it’s threatened
the wrath of God will make orphans of the children of he who mistreats an
orphan:
22 Ye shall not afflict any widow, or
fatherless child.
23 If thou afflict them in any wise, and they
cry at all unto me, I will surely hear their cry;
24 And my wrath shall wax hot, and I will kill
you with the sword; and your wives shall be widows, and your children
fatherless. (Exodus 22:22-24 (KJV 1611)).
The
holy Qu'ran has a number of passages which make clear the duty of all to care
for orphans and not take from them:
Give orphans their property, and do not
substitute bad things for good. Do not assimilate their property into your own.
Doing that is a serious crime. (The
Women: 2).
Keep a close check on orphans until they reach a
marriageable age, then if you perceive that they have sound judgement hand over
their property to them... (The Women: 6).
1932 Studebaker
Dictator. Studebaker used Dictator as a
model name between 1927-1937 and there was not political connotation, the word
in 1927 not having the associations it would later gain. By 1937 things had changed and the name was
dropped.Studebaker had a long and storied history, its origin in a German
blacksmithing business (1736-1750), the family moving to the US and beginning the
production of carriages and carts in 1852, its first automobiles actually
electric cars offered in 1902 before the sale of petrol-powered models in
1904. The powered-range grew quickly and
by 1919, Studebaker ceased production of horse-drawn carriages, a decision
vindicated by its success in the 1920s.
Like many other concerns however, the Great Depression of the early
1930s mauled its business and Studebaker was forced to enter bankruptcy although
a reorganization and a financial re-structuring arranged by the venerable Lehman Brothers
permitted it soon to resume operating, the improving economic conditions of
the mid-1930s ensuring ongoing profitability.
Studebaker
US6 truck in Red Army use, configured as mobile Katyusha rocket launcher, circa
1943.Like many US corporations, some of its golden years came during World War
II when industrial capacity was given over to government contracts fulfilling
military production. A variety of
materiel was produced but Studebaker’s most notable contribution to the war
effort was the versatile US6 (G630 in the government purchasing system) 2½ (short) ton 6x6 trucks, over a hundred and fifty
thousand of which were supplied to the Soviet Union under the Lend-Lease programme. Built in many configurations, the most
memorable adaptation by the Red Army was as a mobile platform for the BM-31-12
(nickname: Andryusha) Katyusha rocket launcher, known to the enemy as “Stalin’s
organs” because of the the distinctive sound of the rockets; the Russian army is still using the concept
in their invasion of Ukraine. The US6
proved popular with the army which found it much superior to the locally-made ZIS-5 & GAZ-AA
and better even than the captured German trucks with Maybach engines which
(belying the German reputation for “good beer, good engines, good sausages"), were prone to overheating under extreme loads, unlike the Studebakers which
never boiled. The tale may be apocryphal
but it’s claimed Comrade Stalin (1878–1953; leader of the USSR, 1922-1953) even wrote a letter of appreciation to
Studebaker, mentioning how important the US6 had been to the Red Army.
1964
Studebaker Avanti R2.
Studebaker had ups and downs after the war but the
long-term trend was down. By the early
1960s the writing was on the wall but there was one last roll of the dice, a
gamble that would be either the savior of the corporation or the final nail in
the coffin. Released in 1962, the Avanti
straddled a spectrum of the market, seen mostly as what would come to be called
a personal coupe, it was also the company’s halo car and, most unexpectedly,
something of a pony car and muscle car before either segment really existed. Offered in three versions: (1) the R1 with a
289 cubic inch (4.7 litre) V8 rated at 240 horsepower, (2) the with R2 with a Paxton
supercharger with gained 50 horsepower and, (3) the exotic 304 cubic inch (5.0
litre) R3 with 335 horsepower (only nine of which were built). Performance was good, the Avanti at least
competitive with the competition and to prove the slipperiness of the
fibreglass body, styled by French-born, US-based designer Raymond Loewy (1893-1986),
the company took an R3 to to the Bonneville Salt Flats, where it set 29
production car records, posting a top speed of almost 170 mph (273 km/h).
The Avanti’s
appearance at the time was quite startling and the reception it received after
being shown in New York in 1962 was generally positive but almost immediately
the project encountered problems. Because
the car was expected to sell in relatively low volumes of around
twenty-thousand a year and the body was rendered with complex curves, production in steel
or aluminum was never considered, the panels instead molded in fibreglass,
then still a more respectable material than it would later become. Each Avanti however needed over one-hundred fiberglass
components and the contractor experienced some difficulty in
mass-producing them with the necessary tolerances, the ensuing delay meaning
that in its first full year on sale, barely 1,200 reached customers,
a disappointing debut for a car expected to rescue the corporation from
impending bankruptcy. Studebaker’s
parlous finances were by now public knowledge and although things improved in
1963, buyers were scarce and fewer than 4,000 Avantis were sold, well below the
volume at which it was economically viable.
The next year, the factory booked orders for fewer than a 1000 and,
bowing to the inevitable, Studebaker announced the end of the Avanti and it
turned out to be a harbinger, all their production ceasing in 1966, the
corporation dissolved shortly afterwards.
At that
point the Avanti should, like literally thousands of others, have become an
orphan, a model cast adrift by the death of the parent corporation. However, the Avanti, which should have been
Studebaker’s swansong, turned out to be a phoenix, the model attracting no
fewer than five subsequent owners who, between 1965 and 2006, produced 3840 Avantis using a variety of drive-train combinations from the Detroit parts bin,
some with convertible coachwork and even a handful of four-door sedans. Even more a niche model than it had been
under Studebaker’s parentage, in its best year as an orphan a mere 289 left the
factory but for four decades (profitably and sometimes not) it was sustained by
a small but devoted clientele and even today the survivors have an enthusiastic
following, the most desirable of the early cars typically attracting over
US$40,000 at auction.
The orphan Avanti production numbers, 1966-2006.
