waif [ME] In the 1990s a new look became popular for fashion models—the very thin, childlike girls were called waifs or superwaifs. The word waif can be traced back to medieval law, where it was a term for a piece of property found without an owner, which belonged to the lord of the manor if it was not claimed—waifs and strays was an overall term for lost property and stray animals. It was not until the 1600s that waif first referred to a homeless or neglected person. The word is from Old French gaif, and before that was probably Scandinavian.