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Father

//ˈfɑːðə(ɹ)// name, noun, verb

Definitions

Proper Noun

1
God, the father of Creation.
2
God the Father, who eternally begets the Son.
3
One's father.
"I will only do what Father asks."
4
One of the triune gods of the Horned God in Wicca, representing a man, younger than the elderly Sage and older than the boyish Master.
"...and our Lord as Master, Father, and Sage."

Noun

1
A male parent, especially of a human; a male who parents a child (which he has sired, adopted, fostered, taken as his own, etc.).
"My father was a strong influence on me."
2
A title given to priests.
"Father Thomas was a good priest."
3
(Christianity) any of about 70 theologians in the period from the 2nd to the 7th century whose writing established and confirmed official church doctrine; in the Roman Catholic Church some were later declared saints and became Doctor of the Church; the best known Latin Church Fathers are Ambrose, Augustine, Gregory the Great, and Jerome; those who wrote in Greek include Athanasius, Basil, Gregory Nazianzen, and John Chrysostom wordnet
4
A male who has sired a baby; this person in relation to his child or children.
"My friend Tony just became a father."
5
One of the chief ecclesiastical authorities of the first centuries after Christ.
"the Latin, Greek, or apostolic Fathers"

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6
the head of an organized crime family wordnet
7
A male ancestor more remote than a parent; a progenitor; especially, a first ancestor.
"So Dauid ſlept with his fathers, and was buried in the citie of Dauid."
8
A title given to the personification of a force of nature or abstract concept, such as Father Time or Father Frost.
9
a male parent (also used as a term of address to your father) wordnet
10
A term of respectful address for an elderly man.
"Come, father; you can sit here."
11
A senator of Ancient Rome. historical
"Claudius put a stop to these executions, and the Conscript Fathers, repenting, placed Gallienus among the divi , — which was equivalent to the maintenance of his acts."
12
‘Father’ is a term of address for priests in some churches (especially the Roman Catholic Church or the Orthodox Catholic Church); ‘Padre’ is frequently used in the military wordnet
13
A term of respectful address for a priest.
"Bless you, good father friar!"
14
a person who holds an important or distinguished position in some organization wordnet
15
A person who plays the role of a father in some way.
"My brother was a father to me after my parents got divorced."
16
the founder of a family wordnet
17
A pioneering figure in a particular field.
"Albert Einstein is the father of modern physics."
18
a person who founds or establishes some institution wordnet
19
Something that is the greatest or most significant of its kind.
"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 […]"
20
Something inanimate that begets.
"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,[…]"
21
A member of a church council.
"In proceeding in this fashion, the fathers assembled at Pisa were following the generally accepted canonistic teaching of the day […]"
22
The archived older version of a file that immediately precedes the current version, and was itself derived from the grandfather.
"Three generations of file are usually kept, being the grandfather, father and son files."

Verb

1
To be a father to; to sire.
"Well go too, we'll haue no Baſtards liue, / Eſpecially ſince Charles muſt Father it."
2
make (offspring) by reproduction wordnet
3
To give rise to. figuratively
"Cowards father Cowards & Baſe things Syre Bace;"
4
To act as a father; to support and nurture.
"I good youth, / And rather Father thee, then Maſter thee:"
5
To provide with a father.
"Thinke you, I am no ſtronger then my Sex / Being ſo Father'd, and ſo Husbanded?"

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6
To adopt as one's own.
"Kept company with men of wit / Who often fathered what he writ."

Etymology

Etymology 1

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *peh₂-? Proto-Indo-European *-tḗr Proto-Indo-European *ph₂tḗr Proto-Germanic *fadēr Proto-West Germanic *fader Old English fæder Middle English fader English father Inherited from Middle English fader. Doublet of ayr, faeder, athair, padre, pater, and père.

Etymology 2

Etymology 3

See father.

Etymology 4

See father.

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