strayling

Etymology

From stray + -ling.

Why this word is great

STRAYLING — [Noun] A little waif or stray; a driftling. From stray ("to wander or deviate") + -ling ("diminutive or affectionate suffix"). Unlike "waif" (which emphasizes helplessness or abandonment) or "drifter" (which implies aimless movement, often by choice), a strayling is a lost or wandering creature, typically smaller or younger, with a quiet, endearing persistence. It is the kitten found shivering beneath a parked car, the lone sock left behind in a laundromat, or the scrap of paper caught in the wind—small things adrift in the world, still holding the warmth of their origins, if only faintly. A strayling is not yet resigned to being lost.

noun

  1. A little waif or stray; a driftling.“[…] yet, seeing it in its true light, manages to hold herself aloof from it; unconsciously conveying to one meeting her for the first time the impression that she was in San Pasqual on her own sufferance—a sort of strayling from another world who had picked upon the lonely little desert town as the scene of her sphere of action for something of the same reason that prompts other people to collect ”