Orphan

An orphan (from the Greek ορφανός orfanós) is a child whose parent have died. In common usage, only a child who has lost both parents due to death is called an orphan. When referring to animals, only the mother's condition is usually relevant. If she has gone, the offspring is an orphan, regardless of the father's condition.

Adults can also be referred to as orphan, or adult orphans. However, survivors who reached adulthood before their parents died are normally not called orphans. It is a term generally reserved for children whose parents have died while they are too young to support themselves.

Definitions

Various groups use different definitions to identify orphans. One legal definition used in the United States is a minor bereft through "death or disappearance of, abandonment or desertion by, or separation or loss from, both parents".

In the common use, an orphan does not have any surviving parent to care for him or her. However, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), Joint United Nations Programme on HIV and AIDS (UNAIDS), and other groups label any child that has lost one parent as an orphan. In this approach, a maternal orphan is a child whose mother has died, a paternal orphan is a child whose father has died, and a double orphan has lost both parents. This contrasts with the older use of half-orphan to describe children that had lost only one parent.

Widows and orphans

In typesetting, widows and orphans are lines at the beginning or end of a paragraph, which are left dangling at the top or bottom of a column, separated from the rest of the paragraph. There is some disagreement about the definitions of widow and orphan; what one source calls a widow another calls an orphan.The Chicago Manual of Style uses these definitions:

Remembering the terms

A common mnemonic is "An orphan has no past; a widow has no future" or "An orphan is left behind, whereas a widow must go on alone".

Another way to think is that orphaned lines appear at the "birth" (start) of paragraphs; widowed lines appear at the "death" (end) of paragraphs.

Alternatively, here's one more mnemonic device: "An orphan is alone from the beginning; a widow is alone at the end," or "An orphan starts alone, a widow ends alone."

Orphan (album)

Orphan is the third full-length album by American indie-rock band Empires, released in 2014.

Reception

Rolling Stone: "Their music is some of this year’s very best"

Billboard (magazine): " The story of Empires’ new album is the story of what a great producer can do for an already-promising band."

Consequence of Sound: " Brick by musical brick, Empires are steadily evolving into the pop rock powerhouse that they evidently have the makeup to be. If the band continue to smartly and steadily branch out like they do on Orphan, they could soon be taking to the bigger stages and venues that the record’s songs so eagerly court."

Stereogum: “Empires make timeless music — upbeat yet melancholy, pleasant but not saccharine, lyrics tangled up in the messy business of romance...These guys have their own thing going, and that thing is highly appropriate for the summer that is about to unfold before us.”

The Huffington Post: "Empires have such a distinct sound I don't know whether to tell you they sound like The National meets [insert alt rock band here] or simply just say it's quality alt/indie-rock blended with subtle 1980s tones. Let's go with the latter."