There are words for one who has lost a spouse -- widow or widower. An orphan is a child who has lost parents. Does anyone know if there is a word for parents who have lost a child? Is anyone familiar with such a word in any language? If no one else can think of a word, are there any thoughts as to why there wouldn't be a word to denote such a loss of primary relationship?

Hi Cherry,

I believe we've discussed this before and found that there was no specific English word for this; apart from the all-encompassing "bereaved."

I'm not as good at finding old threads as many people here. I'm sure somebody can find it for you. It was very interesting.

Welcome aBoard. I'm sure you'll enjoy it here.

here's one; there may be more:
http://wordsmith.org/board/showflat.pl?Cat=&Board=words&Number=104425

(search all forums, posts, for parent AND lost AND child)