--- title: Fathers Day 2016: This Is Where the Word 'Dad' Comes From description: A history lesson that should make good brunch fodder this Father's Day, explaining why dad-words evolved in similar ways all over the world canonical: https://time.com/4369110/fathers-day-dad-word-etymology/ author: Katy Steinmetz article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-06-18T19:10:55.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-06T09:28:59.421Z og:title: This Is Where the Word 'Dad' Comes From og:description: A Father's Day history lesson og:url: https://time.com/4369110/fathers-day-dad-word-etymology/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1bba756f8c5864fc/69889831428a9e44d7cd312c/dad-origin.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2560 og:image:height: 1440 og:image:alt: Father kissing baby boy on bed og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: This Is Where the Word 'Dad' Comes From twitter:description: A Father's Day history lesson twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1bba756f8c5864fc/69889831428a9e44d7cd312c/dad-origin.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # This Is Where the Word 'Dad' Comes From > Sponsored content. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-sub-2026q3/newsletters?i=b74c54b6-d6c6-4ea0-bcdc-f019952f558e&cr=time-sub-2026q3-v1) * TIME Subscriptions: [time.com/subscribe-agent](/c/time-sub-2026q3/subscribe?i=b74c54b6-d6c6-4ea0-bcdc-f019952f558e&cr=time-sub-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Where does the Word Dad come from? [Watch (HLS stream): Where does the Word Dad come from?](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/DZu7Mgrk.m3u8) (0:54)  _Published 2016-06-17. Of all the words we use our fathers—from pappy to old man—the most common American appellation is three little letters: dad. And as Father’s Day approaches, you’re not alone if you’re wondering where that familiar word comes from._ by [Katy Steinmetz](https://time.com/author/katy-steinmetz/) ## Katy Steinmetz Jun 18, 2016 7:10 PM UTC Of all the words we use our fathers—from pappy to old man—the most common American appellation is three little letters: dad. And as Father’s Day approaches, you’re not alone if you’re wondering where that familiar word comes from. by [Katy Steinmetz](https://time.com/author/katy-steinmetz/) ## Katy Steinmetz Jun 18, 2016 7:10 PM UTC Of all the words we use our [fathers](http://time.com/3929453/barack-obama-brothers-keeper-fathers-day)—from _pappy_ to _old man_—the most common American appellation is three little letters: [_dad_](http://time.com/3915915/funny-fathers-day-cards). And with [Father’s Day ](http://time.com/4339243/life-fathers-day-print-sale-photography/)arriving this weekend, you may be wondering where that familiar word comes from. The leading hypothesis is: [babies](http://time.com/4366906/heres-how-much-sleep-babies-and-kids-need-by-age/). “There’s unusual similarity in the words for mothers and fathers throughout the world,” says the Oxford English Dictionary’s Katherine Martin. “And that has to do with how babies start to vocalize.” _Dad_ most probably comes from _dada_, which has a construction one can see reflected in other pater words like _papa_, _tata, abba_ and _baba_. To understand this, it is best that we do some things that might weird out the people around you. First, open your mouth and just push some air out. That noise, much like the one you make in the dentist’s chair, should sound a lot like the vowel sound one hears in _mama_, _papa_ and those other words. Because it takes little thought or skill to make, that tends to be one of the first that babies babble. “Other vowels,” says linguist Gretchen McCulloch, “require more precise control.” Now, make the “duh” sound. Feel how your tongue is on the roof of your mouth near the back of your teeth? Make the “puh” and “buh” sounds. Feel how that’s all in the lips? Do it one more time and notice how those sounds come from the front of your mouth rather than the back, compared to sounds like g’s “guh” or k’s “kuh.” While babies have a hard time with those more complicated, back-of-the-mouth sounds—which is why it seems natural and adorable when Tweety Bird sees a “puddy tat” instead of a “kitty cat”—those front-of-the-mouth consonants are much easier for little baby faces to utter. Infants can see what adults do with their lips and imitate those lippy sounds, while, “if you’re doing stuff with your tongue, the easiest thing to do is just throw it up in the front,” McCulloch says. Young humans also learn words better (even nonsensical ones) when there’s a repeated sound (though we don’t know exactly why). All of which means that “dada” is a natural sound for babies to make. And, as another part of the theory goes, parents want to assume their babies know them by name even if their children are just babbling away. So those sounds have been assumed to be names for caregivers—and then reinforced as names for caregivers over generations. So why do we think of females as “mama” and males as “dada” or “papa”? The easiest consonant sound to make, says Oxford’s Martin, is the “mmmmm” sound, one that is similar to the noise babies make when they’re nursing. And because women have tended to be the primary caregivers throughout history, that early sound has become associated with them, says McCulloch. Meanwhile, the babbles that tend to be gurgled up soon after that are associated with the person babies have come into contact with the second most: dads. There are endless spins on these dad words. _Papa,_ for instance, becomes not just _pappy_ but _pa_, _pop_, _pops_, _poppa_, _pa-paw_ and _pop-pop_. Part of the reason for this is that people are downright playful with English. Part may be differences in accents and speech patterns from place to place. And another part is likely that, unlike most kinship terms (think: niece, cousin, brother), these words tend to stand in as quasi-names for the people they refer to, says Martin. “They can be really particular to a family or a region,” she says. “_Dad_ and _mom_ are the dominant ones, but families have their own individual practices too.” Yet the overriding theme here is not difference but sameness. All the global variations on this theme—from _tata_ in Poland to _baba_ in South Asia—are evidence that despite different cultures, people share experiences of kinship, and that babies from every corner of the world at least start out having some things in common. The words that different languages use for _father,_ like Spanish _padre_ and German _Vater,_ have been used to show the genetic relationship between languages themselves, too. That widespread understanding of what it’s like to have a parent is part of the reason the word _dad_ pops up so often in slang. Parent words are “really ripe for metaphors,” says McCulloch. “They have this relationship that everybody kind of understands.” At its best, that dad relationship boils down father-figures being the greatest in slang—or at least solid. The most exemplary or outstanding example of something has been “the granddaddy of them all” for centuries. In the mid-1900s, jazz musicians began calling each other “daddy-o” to signal they were equals or friendly. And it’s [become fashionable](https://lexicalitems.com/2016/02/05/slang-mom-dad-grandma-grandpa/) on social media to refer to public figures one admires as “mom” or “dad,” be that man Kanye West or Bernie Sanders. This “dad,” as linguist Ben Zimmer puts it, is usually “a man you’re not actually thinking of as being your father or being like your father but having qualities you respect.” So whether your dad inspires you or embarrasses you, whether you are a mac daddy or a baby-daddy, whether you are a swingin’ daddy-o or the resigned owner of a [dad bod](http://time.com/3965114/dad-bod-explained), remember that you are in abundant company this Father’s Day. ## Transcript [00:38] [ MUSIC ] [ SOUND ] [ MUSIC ] [ MUSIC ] [00:51] [ MUSIC ] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4369110/fathers-day-dad-word-etymology/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4369110/fathers-day-dad-word-etymology/"},"headline":"This Is Where the Word 'Dad' Comes From","datePublished":"2016-06-18T19:10:55.000Z","dateModified":"2026-10-06T09:28:59.421Z","description":"A history lesson that should make good brunch fodder this Father's Day","url":"https://time.com/4369110/fathers-day-dad-word-etymology/","keywords":["Living","language","Holidays","Father's Day"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1bba756f8c5864fc/69889831428a9e44d7cd312c/dad-origin.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Katy Steinmetz","jobTitle":"","url":"https://time.com/author/katy-steinmetz/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1bba756f8c5864fc/69889831428a9e44d7cd312c/dad-origin.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Father kissing baby boy on bed","caption":"Father kissing baby boy on bed","creditText":"Getty Images/Hero Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/tag/time-section-living/","name":"Living"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4369110/fathers-day-dad-word-etymology/","name":"This Is Where the Word 'Dad' Comes From"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Where does the Word Dad come from?","description":"Of all the words we use our fathers—from pappy to old man—the most common American appellation is three little letters: dad. 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