First use of the word father

Conventional

AB/AV (Father)

Beyt  Aleph

2         1

ab/av

Primary Conventional Usage

The Hebrew word for Father is AB (or AV). Contrary to popular belief, the word ABBA does not show up anywhere in the Hebrew Old Testament, but the word AB is used to describe Father. There is some controversy surrounding the word «Abba» and its origins. Many believe this was an Aramaic way to express a familiar title equivilent to «daddy,» however, some evidence suggests otherwise. The thought of Abba being an Aramaic way of saying «Daddy» was the suggestion of a 20th century scholar, Jeremias, and was intended to be only this–a suggestion. The New Testament term ABBA (αββα in the Greek New Testament–always connected with «the Father») was thought to be «partnered» with the term «pater» (father) to help the Greeks understand that Abba meant father, but it seems strangly out of place–especially in light of the fact that in the English, Abba is transliterated, while pater is translated.

Regardless of the etymological evidence, modern Hebrew today uses the word Abba as an intimate reference to father (daddy or papa), so it is also possible that oral tradition has carried this down from native Hebrew speakers throughout the generations.

Let’s look at the Ancient Hebrew as it relates to Ab. In the Conventional Hebrew, father is a word we all understand.  If someone is the father, he has children.  A father is the head of a family. 

We think of God as the father of His people.  It is a word that presupposes relationships that connect one person who is the head or chief person to other people by natural birth; adoption of national kinship. 

First use of Hebrew Word AB (Father) in Scriptures

Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.  Genesis 2:24

PICTORIAL

ABBA

Beyt  Aleph

2         1

ab

Pictorial Meaning of AB (Father)

Aleph  –  OX

Strong Leader – First – God the Father 

Beyt  – Tent / House

House – Tent – Son – Family – Son of God  

Pictorial Translation of AB(Father) 

The Ideal

Aleph

Strong Leader

First

God the Father  

Beyt

House

Tent 

Son 

Family

Son of God  

Aleph is the first letter in the Hebrew Aleph-Bet and the literal picture is that of an OX.  The meaning would have been clear to the ancient Hebrew; as the Ox was the symbol of both strength and leadership.  The Ox leads the cows and calves in its herd to safe pastures and protects them from predators. 

Beyt is the second letter in the Hebrew Aleph-Bet.  The picture is literally of a house or tent.

Put the two letters together and you have the Strong Leader and Protector of the House or Household. 

NUMERIC

AB

Beyt  Aleph

2         1

ab

Numeric Meaning of AB (Father)

1

Diety – Unity – Sufficiency – Independence -The First Indivisible – God the Father

2

Difference – Good or Evil – Division – Living Word – Second – To Come Alongside for Help – God the Son

Numeric Translation of AB (Father)

Theological and Prophetic

1  Aleph

Diety

Unity

Independence

The First Indivisible

God the Father

2    Beyt

Difference

 Good or Evil  

Division 

Living Word  

Second

To Come Alongside for Help  

God the Son

Important Revelation Regarding AB

Because in Hebrew the Letters are also numbers the first question we should ask is what number is AB or Aleph Beyt?

If Aleph is 1 and Beyt is 2, are we looking at the number 12? The answer is NO. 

The Hebrew method of numbers would add the value of the numbers together.  So in Hebrew the Number 1 (Aleph) and the Number 2 (Beyt) is the sum of both numbers.  1+2=3

Ab as a number is the NUMBER THREE!

The house of the Father has a third resident which makes the household complete and perfect.  And who is that person?

1  – God The Father

+

2 – God the Son

=

3  – God the Holy Spirit

The primary picture of Gimel the letter (also the number 3) is to Lift UP or Benefit – What a picture of the Holy Spirit!

Final Summary Numeric Translation of Abba (Father)

Conventional – Father

Pictorial – Strong leader of the House

Numeric – Father; Son and Holy Spirit

English[edit]

Etymology[edit]

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[edit]

• (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) enPR: fä’thə, IPA^(key): /ˈfɒːðɚ/
• (obsolete) enPR: făthər, fāthər, IPA^(key): /ˈfæðəɹ/, /ˈfeɪðəɹ/^[1][2]
• Homophone: farther (in non-rhotic accents)
• Rhymes: -ɑːðə(ɹ)
• Hyphenation: fa‧ther

Noun[edit]

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.

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

     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.

   • 1980 August 1 [1 May 1980], Chiang, Ching-kuo, “President Chiang Ching-kuo continues his period of mourning and finds that visits to countryside and people give him renewed strength”, in Taiwan Today‎^[3], archived from the original on 17 May 2020:

     My personal success or failure is insignificant; the rise or fall of the nation is my responsibility and must not be shirked. Upon introspection, I feel I am firmer than ever in confidence that the Communists will be defeated. These are feelings which will comfort Father’s soul in Heaven.

   • 2012, BioWare, Mass Effect 3 (Science Fiction), Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →OCLC, PC, scene: Apollo Cafe, Presidium Commons, Citadel:

     Shepard: The bartender over there?
     Liara: The matriarch hired by the asari government to track my movements?
     Shepard: She’s your father.
     Liara: I know.

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, 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 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Measure for Measure”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [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.
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.‎^[4], 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, […]

9. (Christianity) A member of a church council.

   • 2003, Francis Oakley, The Conciliarist Tradition: Constitutionalism in the Catholic Church, 1300–1870, →ISBN, pages 37–8:

     In proceeding in this fashion, the fathers assembled at Pisa were following the generally accepted canonistic teaching of the day […]

   • 2009, Peter Chidi Okuma, Empowerment of the Catholic Laity in the Nigerian Political Situation […], →ISBN, page 177:

     On the part of the fathers of the synod, over 50 bishops, from every continent, spoke on different ‘group forms’ of the lay apostolate, whereas about 38 fathers made their own interventions in writing to the General Secretary.

   • 2014, Ronald D. Witherup, The Word of God at Vatican II: Exploring Dei Verbum, →ISBN, page 31:

     Remember that the fathers of Vatican II had rejected the first draft of the constitution on revelation entirely.

10. (computing) The archived older version of a file that immediately precedes the current version, and was itself derived from the grandfather.
    • 2004, Ray Bradley, The Ultimate Computing Glossary for Advanced Level (page 31)

      Three generations of file are usually kept, being the grandfather, father and son files.

    • 2007, O. Ray Whittington, Patrick R. Delaney, Wiley CPA Exam Review 2008: Auditing and Attestation (page 556)

      The file from which the father was developed with the transaction files of the appropriate day is the grandfather.

Synonyms[edit]

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

Antonyms[edit]

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

Hypernyms[edit]

• (a male parent): parent

Derived terms[edit]

[edit]

• Father
• Jupiter
• paternal

Translations[edit]

Verb[edit]

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 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Sixt”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [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 […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [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 […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [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 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Iulius Cæsar”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i], page 116, column 2:

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

   • 1906, James George Frazer, Adonis, Attis, Osiris, volume 2, page 209:

     The relations of the sexes were so loose and vague that children could not be fathered on any particular man.

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[edit]

See also[edit]

• beget
• grandpa
• pater
• paternal
• sire

References[edit]

Anagrams[edit]

• afther, fareth, hafter, trefah

Middle English[edit]

Noun[edit]

father

1. (Late Middle English) Alternative form of fader

Of all the words we use our fathers—from pappy to old man—the most common American appellation is three little letters: dad. And with Father’s Day arriving this weekend, you may be wondering where that familiar word comes from.

The leading hypothesis is: babies.

“There’s unusual similarity in the words for mothers and fathers throughout the world,” says the Oxford English Dictionary’s Katherine Martin. “And that has to do with how babies start to vocalize.” Dad most probably comes from dada, which has a construction one can see reflected in other pater words like papa, tata, abba and baba.

To understand this, it is best that we do some things that might weird out the people around you. First, open your mouth and just push some air out. That noise, much like the one you make in the dentist’s chair, should sound a lot like the vowel sound one hears in mama, papa and those other words. Because it takes little thought or skill to make, that tends to be one of the first that babies babble. “Other vowels,” says linguist Gretchen McCulloch, “require more precise control.”

Now, make the “duh” sound. Feel how your tongue is on the roof of your mouth near the back of your teeth? Make the “puh” and “buh” sounds. Feel how that’s all in the lips? Do it one more time and notice how those sounds come from the front of your mouth rather than the back, compared to sounds like g’s “guh” or k’s “kuh.”

While babies have a hard time with those more complicated, back-of-the-mouth sounds—which is why it seems natural and adorable when Tweety Bird sees a “puddy tat” instead of a “kitty cat”—those front-of-the-mouth consonants are much easier for little baby faces to utter. Infants can see what adults do with their lips and imitate those lippy sounds, while, “if you’re doing stuff with your tongue, the easiest thing to do is just throw it up in the front,” McCulloch says.

Young humans also learn words better (even nonsensical ones) when there’s a repeated sound (though we don’t know exactly why). All of which means that “dada” is a natural sound for babies to make. And, as another part of the theory goes, parents want to assume their babies know them by name even if their children are just babbling away. So those sounds have been assumed to be names for caregivers—and then reinforced as names for caregivers over generations.

So why do we think of females as “mama” and males as “dada” or “papa”? The easiest consonant sound to make, says Oxford’s Martin, is the “mmmmm” sound, one that is similar to the noise babies make when they’re nursing. And because women have tended to be the primary caregivers throughout history, that early sound has become associated with them, says McCulloch. Meanwhile, the babbles that tend to be gurgled up soon after that are associated with the person babies have come into contact with the second most: dads.

There are endless spins on these dad words. Papa, for instance, becomes not just pappy but pa, pop, pops, poppa, pa-paw and pop-pop. Part of the reason for this is that people are downright playful with English. Part may be differences in accents and speech patterns from place to place. And another part is likely that, unlike most kinship terms (think: niece, cousin, brother), these words tend to stand in as quasi-names for the people they refer to, says Martin. “They can be really particular to a family or a region,” she says. “Dad and mom are the dominant ones, but families have their own individual practices too.”

Yet the overriding theme here is not difference but sameness. All the global variations on this theme—from tata in Poland to baba in South Asia—are evidence that despite different cultures, people share experiences of kinship, and that babies from every corner of the world at least start out having some things in common. The words that different languages use for father, like Spanish padre and German Vater, have been used to show the genetic relationship between languages themselves, too.

That widespread understanding of what it’s like to have a parent is part of the reason the word dad pops up so often in slang. Parent words are “really ripe for metaphors,” says McCulloch. “They have this relationship that everybody kind of understands.” At its best, that dad relationship boils down father-figures being the greatest in slang—or at least solid.

The most exemplary or outstanding example of something has been “the granddaddy of them all” for centuries. In the mid-1900s, jazz musicians began calling each other “daddy-o” to signal they were equals or friendly. And it’s become fashionable on social media to refer to public figures one admires as “mom” or “dad,” be that man Kanye West or Bernie Sanders. This “dad,” as linguist Ben Zimmer puts it, is usually “a man you’re not actually thinking of as being your father or being like your father but having qualities you respect.”

So whether your dad inspires you or embarrasses you, whether you are a mac daddy or a baby-daddy, whether you are a swingin’ daddy-o or the resigned owner of a dad bod, remember that you are in abundant company this Father’s Day.

Contact us at letters@time.com.

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educalingo

Aeneas carried his aged father on his back from the ruins of Troy and so do we all, whether we like it or not, perhaps even if we have never known them.

Angela Carter

ETYMOLOGY OF THE WORD FATHER

Old English fæder; related to Old Norse fathir, Old Frisian feder, Old High German fater, Latin pater, Greek patēr, Sanskrit pitr.

PRONUNCIATION OF FATHER

GRAMMATICAL CATEGORY OF FATHER

Father is a verb and can also act as a noun.

WHAT DOES FATHER MEAN IN ENGLISH?

Definition of father in the English dictionary

The first definition of father in the dictionary is a male parent. Other definition of father is a person who founds a line or family; forefather. Father is also any male acting in a paternal capacity related adjective paternal.

CONJUGATION OF THE VERB TO FATHER

PRESENT

PAST

FUTURE

CONDITIONAL

IMPERATIVE

NONFINITE VERB FORMS

WORDS THAT RHYME WITH FATHER

SYNONYMS OF «FATHER»

The following words have a similar or identical meaning as «father» and belong to the same grammatical category.

TRANSLATION OF FATHER

Find out the translation of father to 25 languages with our English multilingual translator.

TENDENCIES OF USE OF THE TERM «FATHER»

The term «father» is very widely used and occupies the 2.811 position in our list of most widely used terms in the English dictionary.

Principal search tendencies and common uses of father

FREQUENCY OF USE OF THE TERM «FATHER» OVER TIME

10 QUOTES WITH «FATHER»

Famous quotes and sentences with the word father.

10 ENGLISH BOOKS RELATING TO «FATHER»

Discover the use of father in the following bibliographical selection. Books relating to father and brief extracts from same to provide context of its use in English literature.

10 NEWS ITEMS WHICH INCLUDE THE TERM «FATHER»

Find out what the national and international press are talking about and how the term father is used in the context of the following news items.

REFERENCE

« EDUCALINGO. Father [online]. Available <https://educalingo.com/en/dic-en/father>. Apr 2023 ».