Learn English – Why father is called “dada” and not “fafa”

etymology

Read the words below :

  • Mother – mama – mammy

  • Father – dada – daddy

Why is father not called fafa or faddy?

Best Answer

The term dad has origins in children's speech:

recorded from c.1500, but probably much older, from child's speech, nearly universal and probably prehistoric (cf. Welsh tad, Ir. daid, Czech, L., Gk. tata, Lith. tete, Skt. tatah all of the same meaning)

Daddy is the diminutive of this:

c.1500, colloquial dim. of dad, with -y

The OED quoted here adds more, saying:

Occurs from the 16th c. (or possibly 15th c.), in representations of rustic, humble, or childish speech, in which it may of course have been in use much earlier, though it is not given in the Promptorium or Catholicon, where words of this class occur.

Of the actual origin we have no evidence: but the forms dada, tata, meaning 'father', originating in infantile or childish speech, occur independently in many languages. It has been assumed that our word is taken from Welsh tad, mutated dad, but this is very doubtful; the Welsh is itself merely a word of the same class, which has displaced the original Celtic word for 'father' = Ir. athair.

A childish or familiar word for father: originally ranking with mam for mother, but now less typically childish. Cf. daddy.

?a1500 Chester Pl. (Shaks. Soc.) I. 43 Cayme. I will..Speake with my dadde and mam also..Mamme and dadd, reste you well! [Of uncertain date: the MS. is only of 1592. Harl. MS. of 1607 reads (ii. 678) 'sire and dam', (ii. 681) 'father and mother'.]

1553 Wilson Rhet. 31 Bryngyng forthe a faire child unto you..suche a one as shall call you dad with his swete lispyng wordes.

So dad or daddy stems from baby talk. This makes sense—f is a difficult sound for babies to say, but "harder" sounds like d are easier. Note, however, that just because many cultures share the same-sounding word (dada, tad, tata), this does not mean that one can make a clear distinction of origin. Though tata means dad, it does not provide substantial evidence that dad is from tata. As the OED points out, the form occurred independently in many languages.

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