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pa

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 16 October 2026 at 01:29. This address is a permanent link to this version.
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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

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