English
papa
Papa comes from French papa ‘papa, a child's father’, and goes back to Latin papa.
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEpapa
- Old Frenchc. 842–1400same form
- Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600same form
- Frenchc. 1600–presentsame form‘papa, a child's father’
- Englishearliest quotation 1892same form
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Earlier history uncertain.
Lineage
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEpapa
- Old Frenchc. 842–1400same form
- Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600same form
- Frenchc. 1600–presentsame form‘papa, a child's father’
- Englishearliest quotation 1892same form
Earliest quotation: 1892, Fergus Hume: “they are all of the Orthodox Church, and obey…”
The story
From French papa, from Middle French papa, from Old French papa, from Latin papa, probably originally a reduplicated imitation of a child's early efforts at vocalising Latin pater (‘father’).
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *peh₂- ‘to protect, to ward’
food, company, feed, pain, foster, fur, companion, apparent, pastor, penetration, fodder, fad, forage, pasture, accompaniment, fatherly, patrician, panini, pav, pantaloons, pannier, 58 more
through Proto-Indo-European *ph₂tḗr ‘father’
through Proto-Italic *patēr ‘father’
through Latin pater ‘father’
pattern, patron, perpetrator, paternity, paternal, padre, perpetrate, père, patrimony, pater, compere, 17 more
through Latin papa
through Old French papa
Today it means
noun Dad, daddy, father; a familiar or old-fashioned term of address to one’s father.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Latin papa / papa