Question

My fellow teachers and I were talking, and one of them gave a very interesting riddle I would like to share:

When a woman loses her husband, she is called a widow. When a man loses his wife, he is called a widower. When a child loses his/her parent/s, then he/she is called an orphan. So, what would you call a parent who has lost his/her child?

Let's see whose vocabulary is the most colourful!

Answer 1

you would call them a parent, because whether their child is gone or not they always have the status of a parent because they HAD a child, or maybe if they still have other children other than the one they lost this would fall into the same situation

Answer 2

once a parent always a parent

Answer 3

well...i suppose that was half right...i'll try and see who can get the other half/

Answer 4

half right? how come?

Answer 5

well because half of what you said was right...some parts of it are not the right reasons

Answer 6

the answer to this riddle is actually a magnificent one. Even touching, I must say.

Answer 7

is it probably because your child would always be there watching u

Answer 8

if you know wat i mean by that

Answer 9

you're scary...

Answer 10

hahahahahah LOL

Answer 11

i meant to saya like your child would be above in heaven watching over you but i think it sounded completely wrong....LOl sorry

Answer 12

that's the point of "if you know what i mean"

Answer 13

i guess......im actually really confused right now,,,, but oh well

Answer 14

orphaner?

Answer 15

Well..no.

Answer 16

But I must admit, that's funny

Answer 17

This reminds me of the word invergent

Answer 18

invergent?

Answer 19

Invergent is what happens when you're trying to approximate a function to the nearest zero and instead of converging to the point you expect it to converge to, it converges to the inverse point. Thus "invergent".

Answer 20

Sorry, I know this isn't math, but oh well

Answer 21

A orphaned parent?

Answer 22

bereaved parent

Answer 23

no and no

Answer 24

Actually, it appears that bereaved is the correct term

Answer 25

Actually, there are no words that can describe when a parent loses a child. When a man or a woman loses their spouses, they can find another. When a child loses his parents, he can barely remember them enough to miss them too much. However, when a parent loses his child that he raised for years, it is very sad and no words can describe it, so there's no name for it.

Answer 26

Okay, yes, I agree, however, suppose you wanted to use a word to describe it. Then bereaved would be an appropriate word to describe it for communication purposes.

Answer 27

a parent

Answer 28

But the "parent" no longer has a child...

Answer 29

fact remains they once had a child,and shall forever be called "parents" :P

Answer 30

And that's why bereaved is the term for describing the parents who have lost their child.

Answer 31

actually, what i said above was the answer

Answer 32

If I am writing a paper and I need a word to express a parent who has lost a child, I will use bereaved.

Answer 33

That's what the media uses to describe such parents.