# father

Pronunciation: US say "FAH-thur" /ˈfɑðɚ/; UK say "FAH-thuh" /ˈfɑːðə(ɹ)/

## Noun

1. A male parent; a man in relation to his child, whether by birth, adoption, fostering or otherwise.
   - Simple: A man who is someone's parent, also called a dad.
   - _Her father coached her soccer team for six seasons._
   - _Adoptive fathers face the same sleepless nights as any other new parent._
2. God, especially when thought of as the first person of the Christian Trinity or when spoken to in prayer.
   - Simple: God, especially in Christian belief or when people speak to him in prayer.
   - _The creed begins with belief in God the Father, maker of heaven and earth._
   - _She closed her eyes and asked the Father to give her strength for the week ahead._
3. A man, or sometimes a thing, regarded as the founder, originator or earliest major influence of something.
   - Simple: The person or thing that started something or first made it important, as in the father of modern science.
   - _Gregor Mendel is widely regarded as the father of genetics._
   - _Conference speakers honored the fathers of the early internet._
4. A respectful title and form of address for a priest.
   - Simple: A respectful name used when speaking to a priest.
   - _"Father, may I speak with you for a moment after Mass?" she asked._
   - _The parishioners asked Father O'Brien to bless the new school._
7. A person who fills the role of a father for someone, regardless of any actual parental relationship.
   - Simple: Someone who acts like a father to a person, even without being the real parent.
   - _After the divorce, his coach became a second father to him._
   - _The sergeant was a father to the young soldiers under his command._
5. A male ancestor more remote than a parent; a progenitor, especially the first or founding ancestor of a family or people.
   - Simple: A man from long ago in your family line, like a great-grandfather or someone even earlier.
11. The most extreme or most significant instance of something, outdoing all others of its kind.
   - Simple: The biggest or most important one of its kind.
   - _The morning after the party, he woke up with the father of all hangovers._
   - _Reporters called the overrun the father of all budget scandals._
12. A member of a church council convened to decide questions of doctrine or practice.
   - Simple: A church leader who takes part in a big official meeting of the church.
   - _The fathers at the council debated the wording of the creed._
   - _Every father present at the synod signed the final decree, though some did so grudgingly._
15. One of the great teachers and writers of early Christianity, whose works the Church accepts as carrying authority; usually written with a capital F.
   - Simple: One of the main early Christian writers and teachers whose works the Church trusts, usually written with a capital F.
   - _Her dissertation traces how the Greek Fathers interpreted the Book of Genesis._
   - _Each Father in this anthology of early Christian writing gets a brief introduction and a list of his major works._

## Verb

6. To beget a child as the male parent; to sire.
   - Simple: To be the biological father of a baby or young animal.
   - _The champion stallion fathered dozens of foals over his career._
   - _He went on to father two more children with his second wife._
8. To give rise to something; to be the origin or source of it.
   - Simple: To start or create something, like a new idea or movement.
   - _The engineer who fathered the project never lived to see the bridge finished._
   - _Hard times often father strange alliances._
9. To act as a father toward someone; to give the support, care, and guidance a parent gives.
   - Simple: To care for someone the way a good father cares for a child.
   - _He fathered the new recruits, steering them away from trouble._
   - _Through those lonely school years, the kindly headmaster did his best to father him, giving him the care he never got at home._
13. To adopt something, such as an idea, a work, or a child, as one's own.
   - Simple: To take an idea, a plan, or a child and treat it as your own.
14. To provide someone with a father.
   - Simple: To give someone a father.

## Noun

10. A respectful form of address for an elderly man. *(dated)*
   - Simple: A polite, old-fashioned way to speak to an old man.
   - _"You've walked far today, father. Come in and warm yourself," she said to the gray-haired stranger._
   - _"Tell us of the old days, father," the villagers urged the elder._

## Other meanings

- (noun) The archived version of a file immediately preceding the current one, itself derived from the still older grandfather copy.

## Origin

Proto-Indo-European *ph₂tḗr, possibly built from *peh₂- and *-tḗr, became Proto-Germanic *fadēr, then Old English fæder and Middle English fader, which passed down to modern English. Padre, pater, and père are doublets.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/father (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).