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dada

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Etymology and origin of the English word dada

Pronunciation

  • UK: /ˈdɑːdɑː/[1]

dada1 father

Confidence
Probable
Formation
Reduplication
First attested
1672 J. Phillips, Maronides

Etymology

The word for father is probably imitative, from the doubled syllable /da/ that is typical of a baby's first sounds,[2][3] formed like dad;[4][5][6] the OED compares the earlier dad and daddy.[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

One's father: 1672, in J. Phillips's Maronides.[2] Etymonline dates it to the 1680s, and the Shorter Oxford to the late 17th century.[5][4]

Semantic evolution

The word has stayed a child's or familiar name for a father; the Shorter Oxford labels it colloquial and a nursery word.[4][6] Green's Dictionary of Slang records it in British use from 1905, and in West Indian and Rastafarian speech.[7]

Timeline

  • 1672 – one's father; a father.[2] Etymonline dates it to the 1680s.[5]

Meanings

Noun

  1. (informal) A young child's word for a father: Dada is home![6][2][4]

dada2 art movement

Confidence
Established
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
1918 Viereck's
Borrowed from
French Dada

Etymology

The art movement is borrowed from French Dada and partly borrowed from German Dada, the name of the movement in both languages from 1916.[2] The French name is the children's word dada, hobbyhorse,[2][8][9][10][4] which Merriam-Webster and Dictionary.com explain as a childish doubling of da, a call to urge a horse on.[6][11] The OED notes that it is recorded in Middle French from 1508, and in a figurative sense from 1776.[2] The name first appeared in print in the review “Cabaret Voltaire” (1916), in an editorial by Hugo Ball proposing it as the title of a periodical, and in a dialogue by Richard Huelsenbeck and Tristan Tzara.[2] According to Huelsenbeck and Ball, it was picked at random from a dictionary, but kept with conscious reference to its syllables, felt to be meaningless.[2] Etymonline says that Tzara chose it for its likeness to meaningless babble,[5] and Collins calls the choice arbitrary.[12]

Earliest recorded meaning

The movement in art and literature, and the adjective "of Dada": 1918, in Viereck's.[2][6] Barnhart dates the word to 1920, in Aldous Huxley's letters,[9] and Etymonline to 1920.[5]

Semantic evolution

The movement was founded in Zurich in 1916, during the First World War, by a group of poets, painters and war protesters who met at the Café Voltaire, among them Jean Arp, Hugo Ball, Richard Hülsenbeck and Tristan Tzara.[13][2] Merriam-Webster's Book of Word Histories thinks the name was spread by the title of the group's review, using the figurative French sense of dada, a pet idea or obsession, as in the phrase être sur son dada, to ride one's hobbyhorse;[13][9] the founders later told varying stories of how they found it, such as opening a Larousse dictionary at random.[13] The OED describes the movement as mocking artistic and social conventions,[2] and Collins as founded on irrationality and irreverence towards accepted standards of art.[12] Merriam-Webster dates it from 1916 to about 1920, chiefly in France, Switzerland and Germany.[6]

Timeline

  • 1918 – the movement in art and literature; also as an adjective.[2][6] Barnhart and Etymonline date it to 1920.[9][5]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A movement in art and literature of about 1916 to 1920, chiefly in Europe and the United States, that rejected accepted artistic values through deliberate irrationality and nihilism: a gallery devoted to Dada collage.[12][6][2]

Adjective

  1. Of or relating to Dada.[2][4]

Word family

  • Dadaism
  • Dadaist
  • Dadaistic
  • dadaistically

Usage notes

The word for father is pronounced /ˈdadə/ in British English, beside /ˈdɑːdɑː/ for the movement.[2] In Indian English dada is also a separate borrowing from Hindi, recorded from 1879 for an older brother, from 1888 for a grandfather, as a respectful form of address to an older man, and since 1917 for a member or leader of a local criminal gang.[2]

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  4. ^ a b c d e f Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  7. ^ Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
  8. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  9. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  10. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  11. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  12. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  13. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster's Book of Word Histories, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Dada.” Etymologically, 2 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/en/dada. Accessed 2 Nov. 2026.

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