Dad

I don’t find the word, Dad, in English literature before 1600. The earliest use I’m aware of, in literature, appears in Tourneur’s The Atheist’s Tragedy, when a mocking epicure blurts out, “O dead Dad!” My guess is that the word comes into English through Welsh: tad, father. In the novel How Green Was My Valley, grown sons call their patriarch father Dada, which for them was not baby-talk, but rather the affectionate way to address him: cf. Papa. Though the basic word is tad, Welsh alters the beginnings of nouns under many common conditions, so that my Father = fy Nhad, her Father = eu Thad, and your Father = dy Dad. Jesus, in the New Testament, addressing the Father in prayer, begins, O Dad! It’s strange but true, that of the four forms, the “lenited” or softened Dad is probably the most common, given the typical constructions of sentences. Our Father, in case you’re wondering, is ein Tad.

And yet, ultimately, the word does come from baby-talk, as does Mama. These words seem …