yfra

/ˈyː.frɑ/

noun· region: north-noemic, widespread· frequency: rare but persistent· first recorded: 1903

the missing person referred to but not seen — the cousin spoken of in every sentence and never met.

from yf- (the empty place at a table) and the feminine ending -ra, though the yfra is not strictly gendered. the dialect retains the feminine for grammatical reasons no speaker now defends. the household yfra is sometimes attached to a chair, sometimes to a teacup, occasionally to a coat hanging in the hall.

"every visit my aunt mentioned the yfra — a son or a brother or a neighbour, never the same one, never present." — from a memoir, m.t., 1957

"the kitchen has a yfra. they laid a place for her last christmas and no one asked who she was." — overheard, parlour of the house we visited

field note · l.m., 1986 most households are content with a single yfra. multi-yfra households are recorded in the parish books only when census-takers required a footnote. the yfra is never described as absent — only as not yet here. compare the kitchen door, which is the locus of the household's smaller ghosts.