pa

Pronunciation

• IPA: /pɑː/^[1]

Etymology

It is a colloquial shortening of papa.^[2][3][4][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Father, a childish or colloquial form: 1804 in Etymonline, 1811 in the OED.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

The OED records a one-off verb, to call someone pa.^[3] Pa-in-law, a father-in-law, is colloquial.^[5]

Timeline

• 1804 – father.^[2]
• 1811 – in the OED.^[3]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. (informal) father.

Word family

• ma-and-pa

Related words

• grandpa
• papa
• pop

Usage notes

Another word pa, also spelled pah, is a Māori fortified village or settlement in New Zealand, from Māori pā, recorded from 1769.^[3][5] Capitalized, PA is an abbreviation for Pennsylvania, a public-address system and a personal assistant.^[6][5]

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin