father

English Online Dictionary. What means father‎? What does father mean?

English

Etymology

From Middle English fader, from Old English fæder, from Proto-West Germanic *fader, from Proto-Germanic *fadēr, from Proto-Indo-European *ph₂tḗr, possibly from *peh₂- + *-tḗr. Doublet of ayr, faeder, padre, pater, and père.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: fä'thə(r), IPA^(key): /ˈfɑːðə(ɹ)/
• (General American) enPR: fä'thər, IPA^(key): /ˈfɑðɚ/
• (General Australian) enPR: fä'thə, IPA^(key): /ˈfɐːðə/
• (Ireland, Canada, California, Western Pennsylvania, older New York City) enPR: fä'thər, IPA^(key): /ˈfɒːðɚ/
• (India) enPR: fä'thə(r) IPA^(key): /ˈfɑːd̪ə(r)/
• (Geordie, else obsolete) enPR: făthə(r) IPA^(key): /ˈfæðə(ɹ)/
• (obsolete) enPR: fāthə(r), IPA^(key): /ˈfeɪðəɹ/
• Homophone: farther (most non-rhotic accents)
• Hyphenation: fa‧ther
• Rhymes: -ɑːðə(ɹ)

The development of the /ɑː/ vowel (outside of those accents which also have it in rather, lather) is irregular and has not been conclusively explained.

Noun

father (plural fathers)

2. A male parent, especially of a human; a male who parents a child (which he has sired, adopted, fostered, taken as his own, etc.).
3. A male who has sired a baby; this person in relation to his child or children.

4. A male ancestor more remote than a parent; a progenitor; especially, a first ancestor.
5. A term of respectful address for an elderly man.

6. A term of respectful address for a priest.
7. A person who plays the role of a father in some way.
8. A pioneering figure in a particular field.

9. Something that is the greatest or most significant of its kind.
10. Something inanimate that begets.
11. (Christianity) A member of a church council.
12. (computing) The archived older version of a file that immediately precedes the current version, and was itself derived from the grandfather.

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

Related terms

• Father
• Jupiter
• paternal

Translations

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.
2. (figuratively) To give rise to.
3. To act as a father; to support and nurture.
4. To provide with a father.
5. To adopt as one's own.

Derived terms

• fatherer

Translations

See also

• beget
• grandpa
• pater
• paternal
• sire

References

Anagrams

• Hafter, afther, trefah, hafter, fareth

Middle English

Noun

father

1. (Late Middle English) Alternative form of fader

Scots

Noun

father

1. Alternative form of faither

References

• “father, n.”, in The Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries, 2004–present, →OCLC, retrieved 23 May 2024, reproduced from William A[lexander] Craigie, A[dam] J[ack] Aitken [et al.], editors, A Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue: […], Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, 1931–2002, →OCLC.