padre

Forms

padre m (plural padres, feminine madre, feminine plural madres)^[1] The popular form paire is widespread in Andalusia, Chile and western Argentina; from it come the shortened pay (Puerto Rico) and pae, with the Cuban diminutive paíto.^[2][1] Asturian has pá.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin pater (“father”), from the accusative ⟨patrem⟩; Old Spanish padre has the same form from the earliest texts.^[2][4][5][1] The word is general in all periods and in all the Romance languages except Romanian, Romansh and Sardinian.^[2] It is Italian padre, Catalan pare, Occitan paire and French père.^[6][1] In Galician-Portuguese padre and madre became Portuguese pai, Galician pai and mai, probably through children's speech, and both forms occur in the Middle Ages beside the regular ones.^[2][7] Nascentes says that the Portuguese padre went out of use for “father” after the 15th century and was kept as a title for priests.^[8] The DEEH lists Asturian pá, Aragonese pai and Murcian and Andalusian dialect forms.^[3]

The Latin noun goes back to Proto-Italic *patēr and Proto-Indo-European *ph₂tḗr.^[9][1] Its cognates include Oscan patir and Ancient Greek πατήρ (patḗr).^[9][10] In Latin the word expressed less the physical begetting, for which genitor was used, than the social role of the head of the household, which explains its use as a title of respect.^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas and Pascual date the first record to a document of 1100, followed by a charter of 1132 in Oelschläger's list; the BDELC gives 1132.^[2][4] The DTME dates it to 1069.^[12] In the Cid (c. 1140, known from a 14th-century copy) it means “father” (padre a fijo) and, often, God: „¡Grado a ti, Señor, Padre que estás en alto!” “thanks be to you, Lord, Father who are on high!”.^[13][14] There los padres santos are the patriarchs and the just in limbo.^[14]

Semantic evolution

Alfonso X's prose of the 1270s uses padre for the head of a lineage or people, as a title of respect for churchmen (los santos padres) and, in the plural, for ancestors.^[15] Covarrubias in 1611 calls it an honorific for old men, priests and religious, and quotes the proverb un padre para cien hijos, y no cien hijos para un padre.^[16] Autoridades adds the stud animal (padre de yeguas).^[17] In the cant of the 17th century padre was a cloak or tunic (sayo).^[18][19]

In the 19th century Baralt rejected el Santo Padre for the Pope as a gallicism, Padre santo being the Spanish form.^[20] The colloquial adjective “very big” (un susto padre) is recorded in Spain and in Chile, Guatemala, Mexico, Peru and Puerto Rico; in Mexico it now means “great, cool”, with the superlative padrísimo.^{[5][21][22][1]} In the Canaries padre is the banana plant that bears fruit in the current year.^[23][24] English borrowed padre “priest, chaplain” in the 1580s, from Spanish, Italian or Portuguese.^[25]

Timeline

• 1100 – a document cited by the DCECH; 1132 – a charter in Oelschläger's list.^[2][4]
• c. 1140 – the Cid uses padre for a father and for God.^[13][14]
• 1208 – the Cortes de León call the bishops nuestros padres, the first record not known from a later copy.^[13]
• 1270–1284 – the Estoria de España uses padres for ancestors.^[15]
• 1513 – Nebrija gives Latin pater and genitor.^[26]
• 1580s – English borrows padre “priest”.^[25]
• 1609 – Hidalgo's cant vocabulary gives padre “cloak”.^[18]
• 1611 – Covarrubias records the honorific use for priests and the elderly.^[16]
• 1726–1739 – Autoridades records padre de yeguas for a stud animal.^[17]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary derives it “from Latin patre, ablative of pater”.^[27]
• 1946 – Malaret records the adjective padre “very big” in several American countries.^[21]

Meanings

Noun

1. father: a man who has begotten children, or a man in relation to his children.^[5][1]
2. A man who acts as a father or has a father's protective qualities: Fue un padre para todos sus aprendices.^[5]
3. A male animal that has sired young; a stud male kept for breeding.^[5][17]
4. The head or founder of a lineage, family or people.^[5][15]
5. A title of priests and members of religious orders, chiefly before a name: el padre Ramón.^[5][28]
6. Origin, source; the author, creator or founder of something: el padre de la química moderna.^[5]
7. (Christianity) God the Father, the first person of the Trinity.^[5][17]
8. (in the plural) parents: father and mother; ancestors.^[5][28]
9. (soccer, Internet slang) A team that often beats another.^[1]

Adjective

1. (colloquial) Very big, tremendous: Se llevó un disgusto padre.^[5][21]
2. (Mexico, colloquial) Great, cool, wonderful.^[22][29][1]

Word family

• padrastro
• padrazo
• padrear
• padrino
• apadrinar
• padrón
• empadronar
• compadre
• compadrazgo
• padrenuestro

Related words

• paterno
• patria
• patrio
• patrón
• patrono
• patricio
• patrimonio
• patriarca
• Latin pater
• Portuguese pai
• English padre

Usage notes

Set phrases include padre de familia “head of a family”, Santo Padre “the Pope” and nuestros primeros padres “Adam and Eve”.^[5][28] In Mexico the adjective is also an adverb, “very well”.^[22]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 335
3. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 4846
4. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. padre
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. padre
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. pater
7. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. 2438
8. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. padre
9. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill, p. s.v. pater
10. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. pater
11. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. padre
12. ^ Real Academia Nacional de Medicina (2011), Diccionario de términos médicos, Madrid: Editorial Médica Panamericana; online at https://dtme.ranm.es, p. s.v. padre
13. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. padre
14. ^ a b c Menéndez Pidal, Ramón (1908–1911), Cantar de Mio Cid: texto, gramática y vocabulario, 3 vols., Madrid: Bailly-Baillière, p. s.v. padre
15. ^ a b c Kasten, Lloyd A.; Nitti, John J.; Gago Jover, Francisco (2002–), Diccionario de la prosa castellana del Rey Alfonso X, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (electronic edition 2024), p. s.v. padre
16. ^ a b Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 1183
17. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 5, 73
18. ^ a b Hidalgo, Juan (1609), Romances de germanía de varios autores, con el vocabulario por la orden del a.b.c. para declaración de sus términos y lengua, Barcelona: Sebastián de Cormellas (ed. Madrid 1779), p. 189
19. ^ Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 561
20. ^ Baralt, Rafael María (1855), Diccionario de galicismos, Madrid: Imprenta de J. Cruzado, p. 485
21. ^ a b c Malaret, Augusto (1946), Diccionario de americanismos, 3rd ed., Buenos Aires: Emecé, p. 605
22. ^ a b c Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. padre
23. ^ Real Academia Española (2021–), Tesoro de los diccionarios históricos de la lengua española (TDHLE): Diccionario histórico (1933–1936), its unpublished slips, Diccionario histórico (1960–1996), DHECan, DHECR, DHEVen, https://www.rae.es/tdhle, p. s.v. padre
24. ^ Academia Canaria de la Lengua (2010), Diccionario básico de canarismos, Santa Cruz de Tenerife; online at https://www.academiacanarialengua.org, p. s.v. padre
25. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
26. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 392
27. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 772
28. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. padre
29. ^ Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. padre