In the English language?

Question

There are orphans, widows and widowers, is there a word for someone who has lost a child?

Answer 1

What a really good question. It sort of makes you wonder because it's not like there wasn't a high mortality rate among children when our language was evolving. Maybe it was just so horrible (but common) that it became one of those unspeakable things, something that would bring bad luck if you said it, and we developed euphemisms to handle it instead.

Answer 2

thinking thinking thinking....of course there is the word bereaved which does not indicate the nature of the loss
i would guess that there is an obscure latin based construction somewhere in the oxford english dictionary;let me guess the latin for child is liber and the latin suffix for died is exit in motuuo as he went into death;awkward,mortuoexitliber is very clumsy but the answer will be in there somewhere probably an archaic legal term used by latin speaking monks
the tao group of languages such as thai an d vietnamese have an elaborate system of kin terms where everyone is addressed in terms of family position-i wonder how they solve the problem-good question as these holes exist in any language system i feel sure that the answer would be of germanic origin via latin as the germans specialize i n compound words glued together
see also jamaican slang;babymother

Answer 3

My understanding is that sadly in English there is no specific word to describe a parent who has lost a child.

Answer 4

I don't think ANY language has a word for that. It's too hard a concept for any language to name.

Answer 5

The profoundest grief.

Answer 6

Don't think so, but "bereaved mother" seems to be a suitable term. Or "bereft"?

Answer 7

It's divorcee...but they always seem to find another child soon enough.

Answer 8

shure there is an d all you have to do is pay the fact back by adopting.

Answer 9

None that I know of.

Answer 10

"bereaved, surviving parent"

i don't know of any one-word answer.