| 释义 |
▪ I. father, n.|ˈfɑːðə(r)|
Forms: 1–3 fæder (1 -yr), feder, (3 feader), 2–6 fader, (3 Orm. faderr), (south. dial. 3 væder, veder, 3–4 vader), 3–4 fadre, 4–5 fadir(e, -ur(e, -yr, 4 faþer, 6– father.
[Com. Teut. and Aryan: OE. fæder corresponds to OFris. feder, fader, OS. fadar, fader (LG., Du. vader, vaar), OHG. fater (MHG. and mod.G. vater), ON. faðer, -ir (Sw., Da. fader, far), Goth. fadar (found only Gal. iv. 6, the ordinary word being atta):—OTeut. fader, ? fadēr:—OAryan pəˈtēr (pəˈter-, pətr-). whence Skr. pitṛ, Gr. πατήρ, L. pater, OIr. athir.
The spelling in our quots. is uniformly with d until 16th c., exc. that faþer occurs sporadically in the Cotton and Göttingen MSS. of the Cursor Mundi (a 1300); but the pronunciation |ð| may have been widely current in the 15th c. or even earlier; in 14–15th c. the spelling with -der is very common in words like brother, feather, leather, though this spelling cannot in all cases be supposed to indicate that the writers pronounced the words with |d|. The mod.Eng. -ther |ðə(r)| for OE. -der, -dor in father and mother is often wrongly said to be due to the analogy of brother, or to Scandinavian influence; it is really the result of a phonetic law common to the great majority of Eng. dialects; other examples in standard Eng. are gather, hither, together, weather. At present nearly all dialects pronounce father and mother with |ð| as in standard Eng.; in various parts of the north of England and the north Lowlands |d|, alveolar or dental, is sometimes heard. The representation of OE. æ, a by |ɑː| in this word is anomalous; the only parallel case, setting aside the class of instances in which |ɑː| and |æ| vary, is rather. Among the chief variant pronunciations in dialects are |ˈfaðər, ˈfeːðər| (by writers of dialect books often spelt faither, feyther), (ˈfiːðə(r), Sc. ˈfeðər) etc.
In OE. the genitive had the two forms fæder (cf. OS. fader, OHG. fater, ON. fǫður) and fæderes. The uninflected form survived in occasional use down to the 15th c.]
1. a. One by whom a child is or has been begotten, a male parent, the nearest male ancestor. Rarely applied to animals.
c825Vesp. Psalter xxvi[i]. 10 Forðon feder min & modur min forleorton mec. c1000ælfric Deut. xxiv. 16 Ne slea man fæderas for suna gylton. c1200Trin. Coll. Hom. 165 Ðe sune wussheð þe fader deað ar his dai cume. c1290S. Eng. Leg. I. 14/457 He liet..maken him king of al is fader lond. c1350Will. Palerne 241 A kowherde, sire..is my kynde fader. c1400Rom. Rose 4863 Whanne fader or moder arn in grave. 1473J. Warkworth Chron. 10 Herry Percy, whos fadere was slayne at Yorke felde. 1571Lyndesay MS. Collect., The litill birdis straikis thair fader in the face with thair wingis. 1597Montgomerie Answ. Ingliss Railar 12 Brutus..Quha slew his fader howping to succeid. 1670G. H. Hist. Cardinals ii. ii. 144 Ginetti..proved his Fathers own Son. 1753Hanway Trav. (1762) I. ii. xiv. 62 For a son to call his father by that endearing name. 1884Tennyson Becket v. ii, His father gave him to my care.
b. fig. (Quots. 15972 and 1802 have given rise to proverbial phrases.)
1398Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xvii. i. (1495) 591 Aristotle sayth that the erthe is moder and the sonne fader of trees. 1577B. Googe Heresbach's Husb. ii. (1586) 75 b, So shall the branch [when grafted] live, being both nourished by his olde Mother, and his newe Father. 1597Shakes. 2 Hen. IV, i. i. 8 Eu'ry minute now Should be the Father of some Stratagem. Ibid. iv. v. 93 Thy wish was Father (Harry) to that thought. 1604Jas. I. Counterbl. (Arb.) 102 The foure Complexions, (whose fathers are the foure Elements). 1802Wordsw. Rainbow, The child is father of the man. 1859Kingsley Misc. (1860) I. 7 He..too often makes the wish father to the thought.
c. (More explicitly spiritual father.) The teacher to whom a person owes his religious life.
1382Wyclif 1 Cor. iv. 15 If ȝe han ten thousandis of litle maistris in Crist Jhesu, but not manye fadris. 1769H. Venn in Life (1835) 152 A lady said to me, ‘You, sir, are my spiritual father’. a1858Bp. D. Wilson in Bateman Life (1860) II. 208 As our Father Scott used to say.
d. Proverbs.
1549Latimer 3rd Serm. bef. Edw. VI (Arb.) 97 Happye is the chylde, whose father goeth to the Deuyll. 1616Surfl. & Markh. Country Farme 400 This is it which some vtter in a prouerbe, That he that will plant his father, must cut off his head. c1645Howell Lett. (1650) II. 118 He will be a wise child that knows his right father.
e. Colloquially extended to include a father-in-law, stepfather, or one who adopts another as his child (more fully adoptive father).
1592Shakes. Rom. & Jul. iv. i. 2 My Father Capulet will haue it so. 1599― Much Ado iv. i. 24 Stand thee by Frier, father..Will you with free and vnconstrained soule Giue me this maid your daughter. 1605― Macb. iv. ii. 63 If you would not [weep for him] it were a good signe, that I should quickely haue a new Father. 1798Colebrooke tr. Digest Hindu Law (1801) III. 147 Sons inferior to these..claim the family of their adoptive father.
f. Applied transf. to the relative or friend who ‘gives away’ a bride. Also father-in-church.
1599Shakes. Much Ado v. iv. 15 You must be father to your brothers daughter, And giue her to young Claudio. 1719De Foe Crusoe (1840) II. vii. 174, I was father at the altar..and gave her away. 1871Mrs. H. Wood Dene Hollow vi, ‘I shall want you to stand father-in-church to this young lady,’ said Geoffrey to the clerk.
g. Used colloquially by a wife addressing or referring to her husband.
1855Dickens Dorrit (1857) i. ii. 12 ‘Never mind, Father, never mind!’ said Mrs. Meagles. 1917D. Canfield Understood Betsy (1922) iii. 61 ‘It's gathering,’ said Aunt Abigail... ‘Father'll churn it a little more till it really comes.’ 1960C. Watson Bump in Night iv. 40 If anyone was to blame it was Mr Biggadyke. He nearly lost father his job over that business.
h. the father and mother of a: used colloquially to indicate extreme severity, exceptionally large size, etc. Also (esp. Austral. and N.Z.), the father of a.
1892Kipling Many Invent. (1893) 45 It would ha' bin my duty..to give you the father an' mother av a beltin. 1892― Lett. of Travel (1920) 41 The father and mother of all weed-spuds. 1908Somerville & ‘Ross’ Further Exper. Irish R.M. viii. 197 There's been the father and mother of a row down there between old Sir Thomas and Hackett. 1930Bulletin (Sydney) 3 Dec. 21/3 ‘'Twas the father of a lickin' I intended for ye, Skinny, for the way ye hoofed it awhile ago,’ he said. 1938N. Marsh Artists in Crime xiii. 202 You've led Bathgate into the father and mother of a row for talking out of school. 1947‘A. P. Gaskell’ Big Game 119 Harry threatened to give him the father of a hiding. 1948D. W. Ballantyne Cunninghams ii. xi. 177 The local side got the father of a hiding. 1954G. Smith Flaw in Crystal 139 They've allowed me to arrange the father and mother of a credit overdraft with the banks. 1958L. A. G. Strong Treason in Egg vii. 143 There's the father and mother of a message on the paper. I can't understand it. 1960Punch 13 July 47/2 The stage is set for the father and mother of a row.
i. In conjunctive phrases: father-child, father-daughter, father-son.
1949M. Mead Male & Female xvi. 326 A father-daughter household is not as disapproved [etc.]. 1958Listener 21 Aug. 263/2 The father-son relationship is necessarily permanent. 1960C. Day Lewis Buried Day vii. 142 Pathetic attempts to revive the old father-child relationship.
2. A male ancestor more remote than a parent, esp. the founder of a race or family, a forefather, progenitor. In pl. ancestors, forefathers. So in Scriptural phr. to be gathered, † to be put to or sleep with one's fathers: to be dead and buried. Also loosely for ‘a man of old’, ‘a patriarch’.
c950Lindisf. Gosp. Luke i. 55 Suæ ᵹesprecen wæs to fadores usra. c1000Ags. Gosp. Matt. iii. 9, & ne cweþað betwux eow we habbað abraham us to fæder. c1200Trin. Coll. Hom. 226 Vre foremes faderes gult we abugeð alle. 1377Langl. P. Pl. B. iii. 126 Ȝowre fadre she felled þorw fals biheste. 1382Wyclif Judg. ii. 10 Al that generacioun is gedrid to her fadris. ― 1 Kings i. 21 Whanne my lord kyng shal sleep with his faders. c1400Mandeville (1839) vi. 66 The Sarazines..han the place in gret reuerence for the holy fadres, the patriarkes þat lyȝn þere. a1440Found. St. Barthol. 34 He decessid, and was put to his fadres. 1538Starkey England i. i. 19 Theyr cyuyle ordynance and statutys, deuysyd by theyr old Fatherys in eury secte. 1611Bible Acts xiii. 36. 1671 Milton P.R. i. 351 God who fed Our fathers here with manna. 1791Cowper Yardley Oak 144 One man alone, the father of us all, Drew not his life from woman. 1848Macaulay Hist. Eng. I. 20 Nor were the arts of peace neglected by our fathers during that stirring period.
3. a. One who institutes, originates, calls into being; a constructor, contriver, designer, framer, originator. Also one who gives the first conspicuous or influential example of (an immaterial thing). the Fathers (U.S.): the framers of the constitution.
Often in designations of Biblical origin. the Father of Lights, etc.: applied to God. the father of faith, father of the faithful: Abraham. the father of lies (after John viii. 44): the Devil.
1362Langl. P. Pl. A. i. 14 He is Fader of Fei. 1382Wyclif Jas. i. 17 The fadir of liȝtis. 1555Eden Decades Pref. to Rdr. (Arb.) 51 Abraham the father of fayth. 1588Marprel. Epist. (Arb.) 31 Iohn Cant. was the first father of this horrible error in our Church. 1669Worlidge Syst. Agric. (1681) 114 In Germany no young Farmer is permitted to Marry..till he..hath planted, and is a father of such a stated number of Wallnut Trees. 1700Dryden Fables Pref. Wks. (Globe) 499 He [Chaucer] is the father of English poetry. 1748Richardson Clarissa Wks. 1883 VI. 275 Hannibal was called the father of warlike stratagems. 1795Hull Advertiser 14 Nov. 3/3 Dr. Hooper the father of the canal. 1825J. Neal Jonathan II. 5 The Father of Lies himself. 1829Scott Jrnl. (1890) II. 290 Words..sung by the Fathers of the Reformation. 1844Sir D. Gooch Diaries (1892) 54, I may..I think, claim to be the father of express trains. 1867Smyth Sailor's Wordbk., Father, the dockyard name given to the person who constructs a ship of the navy. 1875Jowett Plato (ed. 2) I. p. ix, To represent Plato as the father of Idealism. 1888Bryce Amer. Commw. II. xli. 105 In ‘the days of the Fathers’.
b. pl. the Fathers (of the Church): the early Christian writers; usually applied to those of the first five centuries, but by some extended further. Apostolical Fathers: see apostolical.
1340Ayenb. 155 Ase zayþ þe boc of collacions of holy uaderes. 1549(Mar.) Bk. Com. Prayer Pref., If a manne woulde searche out by the auncient fathers. 1588Shakes. L.L.L. iv. ii. 153 As a certaine Father saith. a1641Bp. R. Montagu Acts & Mon. iii. §54 (1642) 200 To this discourse of Basil, other Fathers agree. 1710Prideaux Orig. Tithes 141 Irenaeus and Origen, and other Fathers. 1776–81Gibbon Decl. & F. xlvii. note, The Greek as well as the Latin fathers. 1839Longfellow Hyperion iv. vii, I gazed with rapture on the vast folios of the Christian Fathers. 1887Lowell Democr. Prose Wks. 1890 VI. 14 A Father of the Church said that property was theft many centuries before Proudhon was born.
4. a. One who exercises protecting care like that of a father; one who shows paternal kindness; one to whom filial reverence and obedience are due. (In OE. applied to a feudal superior.)
a1000O.E. Chron. an. 924 Hine ᵹeces þa to fæder & to hlaforde Scotta cyning. 1382Wyclif Job xxix. 16 Fader I was of pore men. 1460Earl of Marche in Ellis Orig. Lett. i. 5. I. 9 Oure..ryght noble lorde and ffadur. 1591Shakes. 1 Hen. VI, iii. i. 98 A Father of the Common-weale. 1627Massinger Gt. Dk. Florence i. ii, For her love I will be a father to thee. 1787H. Knox Let. 19 Mar. Washington's Writ. 1891 XI. 123 note, The glorious republican epithet, The Father of your Country. 1867Freeman Norm. Conq. (1877) I. iii. 143 It was meant to assert that Scots..owed no duty to Rome..but only to their Father and Lord at Winchester.
b. with reference to patronage of literature.
1513Douglas æneis i. Prol. 85 Fader of bukis, protectour to science. 1837–9Hallam Hist. Lit. I. v. i. §17. 339 Francis I. has obtained a glorious title, the Father of French literature.
c. Applied to a religious teacher or counsellor (cf. 6).
1393Langl. P. Pl. C. i. 120 Ȝe sholde be here fadres, and techen hem betere. c1465Eng. Chron. 28 Hen. VI (Camden 1856) 64 There thay slow him horribly, thair fader and thair bisshoppe. 1655Fuller Ch. Hist. ix. vii. §13 He was commonly called Father Gilpin. 1757in Sidney Life of S. Walker (1838) 281 Dr [dear] Father in the Lord. 1828Grimshawe Mem. of L. Richmond (1829) 132 He was regarded by them [the communicants] as a father. 1833in Sidney Life of R. Hill (1834) 408 The minister who read the..service, substituted the word father for that of brother.
d. like a father: in a paternal, authoritative, or severe manner.
1830J. K. Paulding Chron. Gotham 64 If she wont listen to reason, I will talk to her like a father. 1922Joyce Ulysses 316 Talking to him like a father, trying to sell him a secondhand coffin. 1926F. W. Crofts Insp. French & Cheyne Myst. vi. 74 James talked to him like a father and he seemed to swallow it all down.
5. a. Applied to God, expressing His relation to Jesus, to mankind in general (considered either as His offspring, as the objects of His loving care, or as owing Him obedience and reverence), or to Christians (as His children by regeneration or adoption). Also applied to heathen gods.
c825Vesp. Psalter lxxxviii[i] 27 He ᵹeceð mec feder min ðu earð god min. c1000Ags. Gosp. Matt. xxiii. 9 An ys eower fædyr se þe on heofonum ys. c1200Vices & Virtues (1888) 25 And [he] steih in to heuene, and sitt on his fader swiðre. a1225Ancr. R. 10 Þe is also federleas þet haueð þurh his sunne vorlore þene Veder of heouene. c1386Chaucer Pars. T. ⁋57 He haþ agilte his fader celestial. 1470–85Malory Arthur xvii. xv, Ioye and honour be to the fader of heuen! 1533Gau Richt Vay To Rdr. (1888) 3 Grace marcie and pece of god our fader. 1562Winȝet Last Blast Wks. 1888 I. 41 The lauchfull vocatioun of His Heuinlie Fader. 1775Harris Philos. Arrangem. Wks. (1841) 322 Through which relation they are called his offspring, and he their Father. 1821Shelley Prometh. Unb. i. 354 Most unwillingly I come, by the great Father's will driven down To execute a doom of new revenge. 1843Macaulay Lays Anc. Rome, Horatius lix, O Tiber! father Tiber, To whom the Romans pray. 1865Tennyson En. Ard. 785 Uphold me, Father, in my loneliness A little longer! 1871Morley Voltaire (1886) 2 Some..austere step-son of the Christian God, jealous of the divine benignity..of his father's house.
†b. Applied to Christ. Obs. rare.
1470–85Malory Arthur xvii. xiv, Fayr fader ihesu Cryste I thanke the. [Hence1859Tennyson Guinevere 558 Our fair father Christ.]
c. Theol. (God) the Father: the First Person of the Trinity.
c1000Ags. Gosp. John xiv. 26 Se haliᵹe frofre gast þe fæder sent on minum naman. c1175Lamb. Hom. 53 Þe feder and þe sune and þe halie gast iscilde us þer wið. a1300E.E. Psalter i. Gloria, Blisse to þe Fadre and to þe Sone, And to þe Hali Gaste. c1450Myrc 459 Leue on fader and sone and holy gost. 1548tr. Luther's Chiefe Articles Chr. Faythe A vj b, The Holy Goost from the Father and the Sonne procedynge. 1737Pope Hor. Epist. ii. i. 102 And God the Father turns a School-divine. 1851Neale Mediæv. Hymns 127 Honour, laud, and praise addressing To the Father and the Son.
6. Ecclesiastical uses.
a. The title given to a confessor or spiritual director. Also explicitly spiritual father and (arch.) ghostly father (but the former, in Eng., has more usually the sense 1 c).
a1300Cursor M. 27857 (Cott.) O scrift þon do þi faders rede, sua þat þi saul mai ai be quite. Ibid. 28077 (Cott.) Til ouer lauerd crist and þe, mi gastli fader, yeild i me. 1393Gower Conf. I. 104 Min holy fader, so I will. 1526Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 9 b, Takynge penaunce of our goostly father for our transgressyon & synne. 1677Lady Chaworth in Hist. MSS. Comm. 12th Rep. App. v. 43 The D[uchess] of Portsmouth..has promised it to her ghostly father. 1805Scott Last Minstr. ii. vi, Penance, father, will I none.
b. A priest belonging to a religious order or congregation. Also the title given to the superior of a monastic house in relation to those subject to his rule.
1571Hanmer Chron. Irel. (1633) 48 He..became father of the Monkes of Saint Hilarie. 1603Shakes. Meas. for M. iii. ii. 11 'Blesse you good Father Frier. 1711Addison Spect. No. 164 ⁋3 A Father of a Convent. 1739Gray Jrnl. in France Wks. 1884 I. 244 It [the Chartreuse] contains about 100 Fathers, and Freres together. 1756–7tr. Keysler's Trav. (1760) III. 278 S. Maria di Galiera is a beautiful church, and belongs to the fathers of the oratory. 1848Macaulay Hist. Eng. II. 99 The skill and care with which those fathers [Jesuits] had..conducted the education of youth.
c. Applied to bishops. Right Reverend father, Most Reverend Father in God: the formal designation respectively of a bishop and an archbishop.
1508Fisher's Seuen Penit. Ps., This treatyse..was..compyled by the ryght reuerente fader in god Iohan Fyssher..bysshop of Rochester. 1521(title), The sermon of Iohan the bysshop of Rochester made..by the assignement of the moost reuerend father in god the lord Thomas Cardinall of Yorke. 1594Shakes. Rich. III, iii. vii. 61 He is within; with two right reuerend Fathers Diuinely bent to Meditation. 168.S. Hollingworth in MS. Bodl. Rawl. Lett. LIX. fol. 190 To the Right Reuerant father in God His Grac Willam Lord Arch Bishshop of Canterbery. 1848Macaulay Hist. Eng. II. 354 He had yielded to the intreaties of the fathers of the Church. 1869Freeman Norm. Conq. (1876) III. xii. 89 The Pope and the assembled Fathers. Mod. The most Reverend Father in God (William), by Divine Providence Lord Archbishop of Canterbury.
d. the Holy Father: the Pope.
c1400Mandeville (1839) xxxi. 314, I..schewed my lif to oure holy fadir the Pope. a1562G. Cavendish Life Wolsey App. (1827) 519 They..by force imprisoned our holy Father the Pope.
e. As a prefix to the name of a priest. Also abbreviated F., Fr.
Formerly, as still in Continental use, restricted to the regular clergy (see b). In the nineteenth century this became the customary English mode of designating a Roman Catholic priest, even among those not of his own communion: but some secular priests still refused the title as incorrect, preferring to be addressed as ‘The Rev. A. B.’ The abbreviated forms are seldom used exc. by Roman Catholics.
As the prefix ‘Father’ was in the 16th c. used only with the names of members of religious orders, its use was of course not continued in the reformed Church of England. ‘Of late years the title has been applied, among a section of the High Church party, to Anglican priests, and some prominent members of that section are very commonly designated by it’ (N.E.D.). Now quite commonly used in High Church circles.
1529More Dyaloge Wks. 140 The good Scottish freer father Donold. 1719De Foe Crusoe (1840) II. xiii. 265 Father Simon was courteous. 1741Challoner Missionary Priests, The same year were banished Father William Weston, S.J., Father John Roberts, O.S.B., Mr. Antony Wright and Mr. James West, priests. 1890Dublin Rev. XXIV. 236 Our readers do not need to be told who Father Faber was.
7. At Cambridge: see quots.
1574M. Stokys in Peacock Stat. Cambridge App. A. (1841) p. vi, The Father shall enter hys commendacions of hys chyldren. 1772Jebb Remarks 20 The students enter..preceded by a Master of Arts..who on this occasion is called the Father of the College to which he belongs. 1803Gradus ad Cantabrigiam, Father, one of the Fellows of a College..who..attends all the examinations for Bachelor's Degree, to see that..justice is done to the men of his own College. 1884Dickens Dict. Cambridge 34 Then the Senior Wrangler..is presented to the Vice-Chancellor by his Father (or Prælector) and receives his degree on his knees.
8. a. A respectful title given to an old and venerable man, and (with personification) to a river.
1559Cunningham Cosmog. Glasse A iv b, How often doth father Moses in his .V. bookes, make mention of Babilon. 1607Shakes. Cor. v. i. 3 He call'd me Father. 1704Pope Windsor For. 197 In vain on father Thames she calls for aid. 1742Gray Eton Coll. 21 Say, Father Thames..Who foremost now delight to cleave With pliant arm thy glassy wave? 1815Southey Old Man's Comforts 1 You are old, Father William, the young man cried.
b. Father Christmas: the personification of Christmas as a benevolent old man with a flowing white beard, wearing a red sleeved gown and hood trimmed with white fur, and carrying a sack of Christmas presents. Father Time: see time n. 25.
1658J. King (title) Examination and Tryall of Old Father Christmas. a1800in J. Brand Pop. Antiq. (1813) I. 373 Lordings, in these realms of pleasure Father Christmas yearly dwells. 1860Christmas Tree 189 'Tis now, when once more from his lair Old Father Christmas issues forth. Ibid. 190 Hail, Father Christmas! Come, and bring Thine ancient merriment and glee. 1864Chambers's Bk. of Days II. 740/2 Old Father Christmas, bearing, as emblematic devices, the holly bough, wassil⁓bowl, etc. 1919Punch 24 Dec. 538 Uncle James (who after hours of making up rather fancies himself as Father Christmas). 1940Economist 20 Jan. 93/1 A Father Christmas State,..which weakly allowed its citizens to believe that wealth came from him not them. 1968C. Chaundler Everyman's Bk. Anc. Customs ii. 180 December the sixth is the feast day of St. Nicholas,..in Britain we usually call him Santa Claus, or Father Christmas.
9. a. The oldest member of a society, etc. (Chiefly, with reference to duration of membership; occas. with reference to age.) Father of the City, the senior alderman of the City of London.
1705Hearne Collect. 13 Sept., Sr Robert Clayton..Alderman, the Father of yt City. 1837C. J. Apperley The Road (1851) 61 Mr. Warde the father of the field, may..be called the father of the road also. 1855Dickens Dorrit vi, You'll be the Father of the Marshalsea. 1880Athenæum 18 Dec. 820/1 Sir Edward Sabine, now in his ninety-second year, is the father of the Society. 1893Daily Tel. 8 July 7/3 The Right Hon. C. P. Villiers, M.P., ‘Father of the House of Commons’, was robbed of his watch on Thursday.
b. Father of the Chapel: see chapel 10.
1683Moxon Printing xxv. 356 The Oldest Freeman is Father of the Chappel. 1888in Jacobi Printer's Vocab.
c. Hence, The presiding member, or president; also, The leading individual of a number. Phr. Father of waters, etc.; in later U.S. use spec. the Mississippi.
1600J. Pory tr. Leo's Africa i. 13 They call Abagni the father of rivers. 1704Pope Windsor For. 219 Thou too, great father of the British floods! 1759Johnson Rasselas i. 1 The mighty emperour, in whose dominions the Father of Waters begins his course. 1763tr. Le Page du Pratz' Hist. Louisiana I. ii. i. 202 By some savages of the North it is called Meact-Chassipi, which literally denotes, the ancient Father of Rivers, of which the French have, by corruption, formed Missisipi. 1771Smollett Humph. Cl. (1846) 251, I will take your place..and think myself happy to be hailed ‘Father of the Feast’. 1808T. Ashe Travels iii. xxxviii. 173 Throughout this great water, this Father of Floods, as the Indians calls [sic] it, in some places, islands are seen sinking into annihilation. 1813Niles' Weekly Reg. V. Suppl. 176/2 The Mississippi is the Nile of America. The aborigines who resided on its banks, called it Mechaseba, or Father of waters. 1818H. B. Fearon Sk. Amer. 257 The facilities of export afforded by those ‘fathers of waters’, the Ohio, Mississippi, and Missouri. 1836J. Hall Statistics of West iii. 46 The traveler is struck with the magnitude..of the stream which has been so appropriately called, the Father of waters. 1878B. F. Taylor Between Gates 23 Fox river, Rock river, Mississippi, the old Father of them all. 1917J. F. Daly Life A. Daly 64 A voyage down the Father of Waters in war times. 1949New Orleans Times-Picayune Mag. 27 Mar. 7 With summer approaching, the unique craft will start slipping down Father of Waters.
10. a. pl. (rarely sing.) The leading men or elders of a city or an assembly.
1590T. Fenne Frutes 57 A grave father of Carthage who boldlie stood foorth. 1697Dryden æneid i. 9 From whence the Race of Alban Fathers come. 1776–81Gibbon Decl. & F. xlvii. ⁋13 The fathers..of the council were awed by this martial array. Ibid. II. 93 A council of senators, emphatically styled the Fathers of the City. 1828Scott F.M. Perth vii, They were..the fathers of the city. 1837Hawthorne Twice Told T. (1851) II. ii. 34 The Selectmen of Boston, plain, patriarchal fathers of the people.
b. esp. The senators of ancient Rome. Sometimes Conscript Fathers: see conscript a. 1. Also used for: The Patricians.
1533Bellenden Livy ii. (1822) 158 The samin yere deceissit Meninius Agrippa, quhilk wes lufit baith with the Faderis and small pepill. 1588Shakes. Tit. A. iii. iii. 1. Heare me graue fathers. 1741Middleton Cicero I. v. 382 The authority of the Fathers, and the interests of the Republic. 1843Macaulay Lays, Regillus viii, The Fathers of the City Are met in high debate. ― Horatius xxxiii, The Tribunes beard the high, And the Fathers grind the low.
11. attrib. and Comb.
a. appositive (sense 1), as father-bird, father-dog, father-fool, father-symbol, father-widower; (sense 1 b) as father-cause, father-fount, father-grape, father-stock, father-tree; (sense 5) as Father-God; (sense 6) as father-abbot, father-confessor, father-director, father-jesuit, father-preacher, father-saint; (sense 9) as father-poet, father-ruffian;
b. attrib., as father-sentiment, father-strength.
c. objective, as father-slayer; also father-sick adj.
1797Mrs. Radcliffe Italian xi, The ceremony began with the exhortation of the *Father-Abbot.
1795Cowper Pairing Time 56 Soon every *father bird and mother Grew quarrelsome.
1646Sir T. Browne Pseud. Ep. i. i. 1 The first and *father cause of Common Error.
1756–7tr. Keysler's Trav. (1760) I. 295 The admonitions of his *father-confessor.
1797Mrs. Radcliffe Italian x, He who appeared to be the *Father-director of the pilgrimage.
1862H. Marryat Year in Sweden I. 459 The *father-dog was kept tame.
1864Tennyson Aylmer's F. 390 One of these old *father-fools.
1884J. Hall A Chr. Home 46 The *Father-fount of nature.
1875W. P. Mackay Grace & Truth 213 Christians have been made sons of such a *Father-God.
1842Tennyson Will Waterproof 7 Such [port] whose *father-grape grew fat On Lusitanian summers.
1630Wadsworth Sp. Pilgr. iii. 14 Obedience the Students are bound to bestow vpon *Father Iesuites.
1711Shaftesbury Charac. (1737) I. 243 Before the age of Homer· or till such time as this *father-poet came into repute.
1691tr. Emilianne's Frauds Romish Monks 277 The one half of the Alms..belongs to the *Father-Preacher.
1814Scott Ld. of Isles iii. xxix, The *Father-ruffian of the band.
1842Sir A. De Vere Song of Faith 108 Hear holy lessons from the *Father-Saints.
1920T. P. Nunn Education xii. 146 The mother-sentiment appears, to be followed..by the *father-sentiment. 1927B. Malinowski Sex & Repress. Savage Soc. 43 Soon the typical father-sentiment is formed, full of contradictory emotions.
1748Richardson Clarissa III. lix. 281 So *father-sick! so family-fond!
1483Cath. Angl. 120 A *Fader slaer, patricida.
1598Sylvester Du Bartas ii. ii. iii. Colonies 526 From fruitfull loyns of one old *Father-stock.
1871B. Taylor Faust (1875) II. iii. 206 The child in that bright season gaineth The *father-strength.
1922Internat. Jrnl. Psychoanal. III. 206 A totem is, of course, as we know from Freud, a *father-symbol.
1605Sylvester Du Bartas ii. iii. i. Vocation 139 Fruits that..have a vertue given..to draw their *father-tree to heav'n.
1845Mrs. Norton Child Isl. (1846) 132 The *Father-widower..Strokes down his youngest child's long silken hair.
12. Special combinations: father-better a. Sc., better than one's father [cf. ON. fǫður-betringr n.]; † father-breeder = father-forger; father-complex (see complex n. 3); father-dust, the fructifying powder in the anther of flowers; = pollen; father-figure, one who is regarded as having some of the characteristics of a father; also father-image, -imago (see imago); father-fixation [fixation 3 b], a fixation on one's father; hence father-fixated adj.; father-forger, one who counterfeits writings of the Fathers; father-general, the head or chief of the Society of Jesus; † father-queller, a parricide; father-right [G. vaterrecht], the supremacy of the father in a family in which descent follows the male line; father-rule, the rule of the father of a family as distinguished from the rule of the male relatives of the mother where descent follows the female line; patriarchy; Father's Day orig. U.S., ‘A day for recognition of the respect and gratitude felt by children toward their fathers, commonly observed on the third Sunday in June. Father's Day was originated by Mrs. John Bruce Dodd of Spokane and proclaimed by the governor of Washington in 1910 but was not widely observed until twenty-five years later’ (Webster 1950); more recently observed also in Britain; father-substitute, -surrogate, a person to whom the attachment of a child is directed in place of the father; father-waur a. Sc., ‘worse than one's father’ (Jam.); cf. father-better, and ON. fǫður-verringr n. Also in syntactical combinations of the uninflected genitive, father-brother, -sister, Sc., a paternal uncle, paternal aunt; father-kin.
1645R. Baillie Lett. (1841) II. 295 Her glowming sonne, whom I pray God to bless, and make *father-better.
1624Gataker Transubst. 103 Under his name our Popish *Father-breeders have of late set out a many of Sermons and Treatises.
1513Douglas æneis vi. vi. 37 We stand content..That ay remane the chaist Proserpyna Within hir *faderis broderis boundis and ring. 1609Skene Reg. Maj. 33 The father brother of the fathers side.
1916C. E. Long tr. Jung's Coll. Papers Analyt. Psychol. iii. 174 As a pious and obedient daughter..Sarah has brought about the usual sublimation and cleavage of the *father-complex and on the one side has elevated her childish love to the adoration of God, on the other has turned the obsessive force of her father's attraction into the persecuting demon Asmondi. 1922D. H. Lawrence England, my England 20 Let the psychoanalysts talk about father complex. It is just a word invented. 1950J. Strachey tr. Freud's Totem & Taboo iv. 143 The same contradictory feelings which we can see at work in the ambivalent father-complexes of our children and of our neurotic patients.
1943Greeley (Colo.) Daily Tribune 5 June 5/5 Governor Vivian proclaimed Sunday, June 30, as *Father's Day. 1956A. Huxley Adonis & Alphabet 169 Mother's Day and, despite the growing absurdity of poor Poppa, Father's Day were instituted. 1963New Yorker 15 June 82 And, what an inspired idea for Father's Day!
1728–46Thomson Spring 540 From family diffused To family, as flies the *father-dust, The varied colours run.
1934M. Bodkin Archetypal Patterns in Poetry, Index 338/2 *Father-figure, -imago. 1955D. Hudson in Forgotten King (1960) 200, I was conscious of William Ewart Gladstone as a father-figure of looming..import. 1957Ann. Reg. 1956 168 President Eisenhower..was also something of a ‘father figure’ whose personality inspired such confidence as often to serve as a substitute for a policy. 1958Sunday Times 1 June 6/4 Samuel Beckett (a father-figure: his ‘Murphy’ (1938) constantly echoes in today's fiction). 1970New Society 5 Mar. 396/3 Later this was changed to grandfather so that a lost father-figure could be hauled in by the back hairs as an excuse.
1961Times 20 Sept. 16/5 The *father-fixated daughter.
1930Amer. Jrnl. Psychiatry 864 The reverse of course is equally true of the woman with a so-called *father-fixation who marries not so much a husband as a father symbol. 1939G. Greene Confid. Agent i. ii. 86 I'm not romantic. This is what's called a father-fixation.
1624Gataker Transubst. 64 Our Popish *Father-forgers have set out divers things.
1587Fleming Contn. Holinshed III. 1326/1 Their *father generall deliuering them what he hath in office. 1679Oates Myst. Iniq. 16 All these..do serve as Intelligencers to the Father General.
1937Harper's Monthly Mag. Nov. 569/2 Mr. Martin questions whether the labours of the Shamans and witch doctors in creating the perfect ‘*father image’ have not been a little overdone. 1956E. L. Mascall Christ. Theol. & Nat. Sci. vi. 217 As soon as he [sc. Freud] had convinced himself that the idea of God was the projection of a father-image in a wish-fulfilment.
1916B. M. Hinkle tr. Jung's Psychol. of Unconscious i. iii. 55 Difficulties develop in the capacity for erotic expression, which may be reduced analytically to disturbances through a repressive attempt at resuscitation of the father image, or the ‘*Father-Imago’. 1923E. Jones Ess. Appl. Psycho-Analysis 79 The figure of Polonius may be thus regarded as resulting from ‘decomposition’ of the paternal archetype... He is but a substitute for the step-father, i.e. a father imago. 1943Horizon Oct. 252 Dramas of the soul which aspired either to destroy or reach beyond the traditional father-imago.
c1440Promp. Parv. 145 *Fader Qwellare, patricida. 1561J. Daus tr. Bullinger on Apoc. (1573) 22 b, A most arrant father queller. a1641Bp. R. Montagu Acts & Mon. iv. §52 (1642) 280 They would never endure Father-quellers to rule over them.
1899F. W. Moore tr. Gumplowicz's Outl. Sociol. i. 53 He [sc. J. Lippert] goes on to show the rising ‘*father right’. 1907Folk-Lore June 245 The passage from motherright to fatherright. 1955M. Gluckman Custom & Conflict in Afr. iii. 73 The two contrasting types of kinship system, extreme father-right and extreme matriliny, are built up on the same principle: the link of mother to child.
1899F. W. Moore tr. Gumplowicz's Outl. Sociol. iii. 112 It is recognized that mother-rule everywhere gave place to *father-rule.
1597Skene De Verb. Sign. s.v. Eneya, The *father sister and her bairnes suld succeede.
1938F. L. Lucas Delights of Dictatorship ii. 46 The hysteria that can find in the Head of that State [sc. the U.S.S.R.] a dream-husband, a *father-substitute,..a God. 1949E. Coxhead Wind in West vi. 156 He had almost detached himself from Mother... Transference to a father-substitute was plainly the next stage.
1950J. Strachey tr. Freud's Totem & Taboo iv. 148 The totem may be the first form of *father-surrogate. 1957N. Frye Anat. Criticism 165 The fury with which these characters are baited..shows that they are father-surrogates.
Senses 11 and 12 in Dict. become 12 and 13. Add: 11. Computing. A tape of data from which the current version has been generated, retained for security reasons. Cf. *grandfather n. 1 c, *son n.1 9.
1965Friedman & Rice Fund. Electronic Data Processing ix. 405/2 This technique..assures that..today's updating does not deal with a ‘father’ or ‘grandfather’ tape, but uses the youngest ‘son’ of the series as input. 1967R. W. Lott Basic Data Processing viii. 125 A popular method is known as the grandfather cycle. In such a system, the father and grandfather of the current tape are always retained. As soon as the current tape has produced a son then the grandfather has become a great grandfather and can be converted to some other use. 1970O. Dopping Computers & Data Processing xvi. 265 The new master tape (‘son’) is retained till the next updating run in which it serves as the old master tape (‘father’). 1980C. S. French Computer Sci. xii. 65 There will be a definite policy with regard to how many generations [of tape] are kept; Grandfather—Father—Son should be adequate.
▪ II. father, v.|ˈfɑːðə(r)|
[f. prec. n.]
1. trans. To be or become the father of; to beget.
1483Cath. Angl. 120 To Fadyr, genitare. 1583Stanyhurst æneis i. 285 By Mars fiery fathered twins. 1591F. Sparry tr. Cattan's Geomancie 81 If the childe be right fathered. 1605Sylvester Du Bartas ii. iii. i. Vocation 997 Ismael..lives, to father mighty Progenies. 1611Shakes. Cymb. iv. ii. 26 Cowards father Cowards, & Base things Syre Bace. 1877S. Lanier Poems, Florida Sunday 103, I am one with all the kinsmen things That e'er my Father fathered. 1884Tennyson Becket iii. iii. 132 Had I fathered him I had given him more of the rod than the sceptre.
b. fig. To originate, bring into existence; to be the author of (a doctrine, statement, etc.).
1548Gest Pr. Masse D iij/1 The true meanyng of them who fathered the Canon. 1601Holland Pliny I. 91 When some grave personage fathereth a lie. 1842Tennyson Love & Duty 7 Shall Error in the round of time Still father Truth? 1850Kingsley Alt. Locke vii, As wild Icarias..as ever were fathered by a red Republic.
2. To appear or pass as, or acknowledge oneself, the father of; † to adopt.
c1400Mandeville (Roxb.) xxxi. 142 On þis wise may þai fader anoþer mannez childe. 1589Warner Alb. Eng. vi. xxx. (1612) 148 Who so the Childe shall git..Vulcan..shall father it. 1678Dryden True Widow Prol. 32 He's a sot, Who needs will father what the parish got. 1722De Foe Col. Jack (1840) 213, I would father no brats that were not of my own getting. 1855Macaulay Hist. Eng. III. 8 The charge of..fathering a supposititious child.
fig.1737Pope Hor. Epist. ii. ii. 170 Use will father what's begot by Sense.
b. To appear or acknowledge oneself as the author of; to adopt; to take the responsibility of. Also † To represent oneself as the owner of.
1591Horsey Trav. App. (Hakluyt Soc.) 282 They shall not..father any other mens goods but their owne. 1634Canne Necess. Separ. (1849) 242 The report goes that he was not the..author of it, but another did it, and got him to father it. 1662–3J. Berkenhead Assembly-Man To Rdr., Unwilling to father other mens sins. 1727Swift To Earl of Oxford, Men of wit, Who often father'd what he writ. 1827Scott Jrnl. (1890) II. 25 A singular letter from a lady, requesting I would father a novel of hers. 1855Macaulay Hist. Eng. IV. xx. 498 By these two distinguished men Paterson's scheme was fathered. Montague undertook to manage the House of Commons, Godfrey to manage the City. 1870Spurgeon Treas. Dav. Ps. xliv. heading, No other writer should be sought for to father any of the Psalms, when David will suffice.
3. To act as a father to, look after; † to carry out (a law).
1577tr. Bullinger's Decades (1592) 192 Suppose..there were no magistrate to execute and as it were to father those lawes. 1611Shakes. Cymb. iv. ii. 395, I good youth And rather Father thee, then Master thee. 1892Pall Mall G. 3 May 3/1 The way in which Khama fathers his people.
4.
†a. To trace the father of. Obs.
b. to father oneself: to indicate one's paternity. Obs. exc. dial.
1599Shakes. Much Ado i. i. 111 The Lady fathers her selfe: be happie Lady, for you are like an honorable father. 1680Burnet Rochester 14 A Child is fathered sometimes by its resemblance. 1878Cumbrld. Gloss. s.v. Fadder, A child having features resembling those of its father ‘fadders it sel’.
fig.1808Scott in Lockhart xviii, This spirited composition as we say in Scotland fathers itself in the manliness of its style.
5. To name or declare the father of (a child). With const. on, upon: To fix the paternity of (a child) on or upon; to affiliate to.
1570Levins Manip. 78/1 To Father, patrem nominare. 1611Speed Theat. Gt. Brit. i. 2/1 Brute should have had more sons fathered on him. 1625K. Long tr. Barclay's Argenis ii. xxii. 141 Neptune, upon whom..our Ancestors have fathered all the men of extraordinary huge stature. 17..Young Tamlane 67–8 Father my bairn on whom I will, I'll father nane on thee. 1885Daily News 13 Mar. 7/3 He advised her to father her child. Ibid., He had asked her to father it upon the gardener.
6. fig. of 5. To name the author of. rare. With const. † of, on, upon: To ascribe (some thing) to (a person) as his production or work; to attribute the authorship of (something) to (a person).
1542Udall Erasm. Apoph. i. xxii. 11 This saiying..is fathered on Socrates. 1548Gest Pr. Masse I viij, The canones whiche the catholiques father of y⊇ apostles. c1590Cartwright in Presbyt. Rev. Jan. 1888 120 Especially if these be ther workes which are fathered of them. a1635Naunton Fragm. Reg. (Arb.) 37 It is a likely report that they father on him. 1764Franklin Narrative Wks. 1887 III. 269 To father the worst of crimes on the God of peace. 1865Livingstone Zambesi xix. 398 And coolly fathered the traffic on the Missionaries.
b. to father (a thing) upon (something else): to trace to (something) as a source or origin; to lay to the account of.
1608Yorksh. Trag. i. iii, Fathering his riots on his youth. 1680Boyle Scept. Chem. vi. 433 Such Phantastick and Un-intelligible Discourses..father'd upon such excellent Experiments. 1702Eng. Theophrast. 270 We father upon love several dealings and intercourses in which it is not concerned. 1774Fletcher Fict. & Gen. Creed Pref. Wks. 1795 III. 313 The principle on which such a doctrine might be justly fathered.
c. loosely, const. on, upon: To put upon, impose upon, attach to.
1816Kirby & Sp. Entomol. (1828) II. xvii. 47 This interpretation has been fathered upon them. 1874H. R. Reynolds John Bapt. iii. §1. 147 note, Some attempt to father on the Christian Church the limitations and orders of the Jewish priesthood. 1885Law Times LXXIX. 190/2 The word ‘land’ is to bear the meaning which is fathered upon it by sub-sect. 10 (i.).
†7. With complement: To assert to be (something) in origin; to declare to have been originally.
1606Warner Alb. Eng. xiv. lxxxiii. (1612) 346 The Scots..do father it The Stone that Iacob..Did sleepe vpon. 1620–55I. Jones Stone-Heng (1725) 13 Jeffrey Monmouth..was the first..that father'd Stone-Heng their Monument. |