# grandfather

Pronunciation: US say "GRAND-fah-thur" /ˈɡɹæn(d)ˌfɑðɚ/; UK/AUS say "GRAND-fah-thuh" /ˈɡɹæn(d)ˌfɑːðə(r)/

## Noun

1. The father of one's mother or father.
   - Simple: The father of your mother or father.
   - _Her grandfather emigrated from Italy in the 1920s._
   - _He inherited the old farmhouse from his grandfather._
2. A male ancestor in a line of descent; a forefather.
   - Simple: A man in your family who lived long ago, before your parents and grandparents.
   - _The tribe told stories of the grandfathers who first crossed the mountains._
   - _She felt connected to the grandfather whose name she still carried generations later._
5. The archived older version of a file, the copy that immediately precedes the more recent 'father' file in a backup sequence.
   - Simple: An older backup copy of a file, kept one step before the next-newest saved copy.
   - _In the backup rotation, the grandfather sits two generations behind the current working file._
   - _Administrators stored the grandfather offsite in case both newer copies failed._

## Verb

3. To keep an old rule in force for a person, organization, or thing that was already subject to it, even after the rule itself has been discontinued. *(US)*
   - Simple: To let someone or something keep following an old rule after the rule has changed.
   - _The new policy grandfathers existing members at their current dues._
   - _Lawmakers agreed to grandfather the factories built before 1990._
4. To be a grandfather to someone, or to take on a grandfather's role toward them.
   - Simple: To be a grandfather to someone, or to act like one toward them.
   - _After the boy's grandparents died, the old man grandfathered him for years._
   - _He chose to grandfather the orphaned children of his late friend._

## Origin

**Meanings 1–2, 4–5** — The noun is derived from Middle English grandfadre and similar forms, combining graunt ("big, large; great") with fader ("father, male ancestor"), probably modelled after Middle French grandpere (whence French grand-père). It can be analysed as grand- + father and superseded the earlier eldfather. The verb is derived from the noun.
**Meaning 3** — From grandfather clause: see grandfather (etymology 1) and clause.

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