WAIF

See also: waif

English

Etymology

A humorous reinterpretation of waif as an initialism for "why am I famous?".

Noun

WAIF (plural WAIFs)

1. (informal, derogatory) A minor celebrity who does not deserve his or her fame.
   • 1996 October 19, Hester Lacey, “She's left her wild-child self behind, learned from her multitude of mistakes and even got a proper job. So why do we hate her?”, in The Independent:

     Tamara was one of the original wild-child tribe - up to now, famous mainly for being famous. She has done a quantity of high-profile dabbling in modelling, acting, television and journalism (file under MAW - Model, Actress, Whatever - or WAIF - Why Am I Famous?)

   • 1999, Phil Strongman, Cocaine, page 91:

     Jeff left with Johnny a few moments as I wondered if maybe the WAIFs were also getting paid to drape themselves around the place. You know what a WAIF is, one of those Why am I famous? people - an It Girl or He-Hunk or whatever. Maybe they'd been hired in too.

   • 2001 March 4, Harriet Lane, “First The Word, now the pictures”, in The Observer:

     Amanda was arguably the first WAIF (Why Am I Famous): young, posh, blonde, buxom and desperate for attention, she danced on nightclub tables in a rubber dress in 1987, much to the consternation of tabloid readers and the staff at her Wiltshire boarding school, who were under the impression she had been tucked up in her dormitory at the time.

Hypernyms

• sublebrity

See also

• MAW