father

See also: Father

English

Etymology

From Middle English fader, from Old English fæder, from Proto-West Germanic *fader, from Proto-Germanic *fadēr, from Proto-Indo-European *ph₂tḗr. Doublet of ayr, faeder, padre, pater, and père.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: fä'thə(r), IPA^(key): /ˈfɑːðə(ɹ)/

• Audio (RP)

  (file)

• (General American) enPR: fä'thər, IPA^(key): /ˈfɑðɚ/

• Audio (GA)

  (file)

• (General Australian) enPR: fä'thə, IPA^(key): /ˈfaːðə/
• (obsolete) enPR: fă'thər, IPA^(key): /ˈfæðəɹ/
• Homophone: farther (in non-rhotic accents)
• Rhymes: -ɑːðə(ɹ)
• Hyphenation: fa‧ther

Noun

father (plural fathers)

1. A (generally human) male who begets a child.

   My father was a strong influence on me.

   My friend Tony just became a father.

   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], OCLC 964384981, Proverbs 10:1:

     The Pꝛouerbes of Solomon: A wiſe ſonne maketh a glad father : but a fooliſh sonne is the heauineſſe of his mother.

   • 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter 5, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., OCLC 222716698:

     When this conversation was repeated in detail within the hearing of the young woman in question, and undoubtedly for his benefit, Mr. Trevor threw shame to the winds and scandalized the Misses Brewster then and there by proclaiming his father to have been a country storekeeper.

   • 2010 April 7, Cécile Corbel (lyrics), Cécile Corbel and Simon Caby (music), “My First Borrowing”, in 借りぐらし Kari-gurashi [The Borrowers] (CD), Yamaha Music Communications, performed by Cécile Corbel:

     Father, dear father
     Will you be proud of me?
     I wish I could be
     Just like you.

2. A male ancestor more remote than a parent; a progenitor; especially, a first ancestor.
   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], OCLC 964384981, 1 Kings 2:10:

     So Dauid ſlept with his fathers, and was buried in the citie of Dauid.

   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], OCLC 964384981, Romans 4:16:

     Therefoꝛe it is of faith, that it might bee by grace; to the ende the pꝛomiſe might be ſure to all the ſeede, not to that onely which is of the Law, but to that alſo which is of the faith of Abꝛaham, who is the father of vs all,

3. A term of respectful address for an elderly man.

   Come, father; you can sit here.

4. A term of respectful address for a priest.
   • c. 1603–1604, William Shakespeare, “Measvre for Measure”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act III, scene ii]:

     Bless you, good father friar!

5. A person who plays the role of a father in some way.

   My brother was a father to me after my parents got divorced.

   The child is father to the man.

   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], OCLC 964384981, Job 29:16:

     I was a father to the pooꝛe : and the cauſe which I knewe not, I ſearched out.

   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], OCLC 964384981, Genesis 45:8:

     So now it was not you that sent me hither, but God : and he hath made me a father to Pharaoh, and loꝛd of all his houſe, and a ruler thꝛoughout all the land of Egypt.

6. The founder of a discipline or science.

   Albert Einstein is the father of modern physics.

7. Something that is the greatest or most significant of its kind.
   • 1991, The Nairobi Law Monthly:

     Soon after the announcement of this year's election results, Mereka said that "the father of all battles had just begun." His dispute with Muite goes back to March last year […]

   • 2002, Financial Management:

     "If UK GDP slows by 1 per cent, there is the mother and father of all recessions. It was exciting, but very bizarre, working in such an environment."

   • 2012, Zubairu Wai, Epistemologies of African Conflicts: Violence, Evolutionism, and the War in Sierra Leone, Palgrave Macmillan: (→ISBN), page 93:

     “The Father of All Battles”

     On March 23, 1991, a band of armed insurgents attacked the town of Bomaru […]

8. Something inanimate that begets.
   • 1649, Richard Lovelace, Amyntor's Grove, His Chloris, Arigo, and Gratiana. An Elogie.‎^[1], Thomas Harper, page 88:

     But may the Sun and gentle weather, / When you are both growne ripe together, / Load you with fruit, ſuch as your Father / From you with all the joyes doth gather : / And may you when one branch is dead / Graft ſuch another in it's ſtead, […]

Synonyms

• (parent): see Thesaurus:father
• (most significant thing): see mother and granddaddy

Antonyms

• (with regards to gender) mother
• (with regards to ancestry) son, daughter, child

Hypernyms

• (a male parent): parent

Derived terms

• be gathered to one's fathers
• Father Christmas
• fatherhood
• father-in-law
• fatherland
• fatherless
• fatherlike
• fatherliness
• fatherly
• Father of Lies
• father of the House
• Father's Day
• Father Time
• father tongue
• forefather
• godfather
• God the Father
• grandfather
• great-grandfather
• Heavenly Father
• highfather
• how's your father
• like father, like son
• penny-father
• stepfather

 

Related terms

• Father
• Jupiter
• paternal

Translations

See father/translations § Noun.

Verb

father (third-person singular simple present fathers, present participle fathering, simple past and past participle fathered)

1. To be a father to; to sire.
   • 1591, William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Sixt”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act IV, scene v], page 117, column 2:

     Well go too, we'll haue no Baſtards liue, / Eſpecially ſince Charles muſt Father it.

2. (figuratively) To give rise to.
   • 1611 April (first recorded performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Cymbeline”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act II, scene ii], page 387, column 1:

     Cowards father Cowards & Baſe things Syre Bace;

3. To act as a father; to support and nurture.
   • 1611 April (first recorded performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Cymbeline”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act IV, scene ii], page 390, column 2:

     I good youth, / And rather Father thee, then Maſter thee:

4. To provide with a father.
   • 1599, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Iulius Cæsar”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act II, scene i], page 116, column 2:

     Thinke you, I am no ſtronger then my Sex / Being ſo Father'd, and ſo Husbanded?

5. To adopt as one's own.
   • 1713, Jonathan Swift, Imitation of Horace, Book I. Ep. VII.

     Kept company with men of wit / Who often fathered what he writ.

Translations

See father/translations § Verb.

See also

• beget
• grandpa
• pater
• paternal
• sire

Anagrams

• afther, fareth, hafter, trefah

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Middle English

Noun

father

1. (Late Middle English) Alternative form of fader