Definition 1: The male parent and, by extension, an ancestor (forefather), mentor (spiritual father), or the origin, as F. L. Wright might be said to be the father of modern American architecture.

Usage 1: "Dad" is probably not taken from Irish dad "father" but rather a variation of "da-da," one of the initial nonsense syllables uttered by all infants and presumed to be addressed to a parent. That is the same source of the Irish word. "Father" has, it seems, fathered many offspring: fatherly "like a father," fatherhood "the qualities or relation of a father," and the verb just used.

Suggested usage: We suggest you use today's word to wish your father the happiest of Fathers Days. The immensity of the place of our fathers in our lives is reflected in the metaphorical usage: "The Fatherland" refers to your native land, while "Father" is the term we use to address the person who links us to God, our priest, indeed, God himself. Fathers certainly play a major role in our lives and in our culture. For more on fathers, read our lists of great fathers and father words at http://www.yourdictionary.com/library/father2002.html.

Etymology: Today's word probably comes from one of the first syllables uttered by babies, pa- (along with ma-, ba-, da-, and ta-) plus the Indo-European kinship suffix -ter, also found in "mother," "sister," and "brother." This gave us the ancestor of Greek "pater," Latin "pater," and Sanskrit "pitAr." Latin "pater" devolved into Spanish and Italian "padre," Portuguese "pai," and French "père." Sanskrit "pitAr" became Hindi pitA, Marathi "pitaa," Pali "pitu," Pashto "plaar." In the Germanic languages we find English "father," German Vater," Norwegian "far," Swedish "fader." Gaelic athair and Armenian "hair" wended their way from the same progenitor. Russian otec, Serbian otac, and Albanian "atë" were borrowed from Turkic "ata."