daddy

See also: Daddy

English

Etymology

From dad +‎ -y.

Pronunciation

• enPR: dăd'i, IPA^(key): /ˈdædi/

• Audio (UK):

  (file)

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ædi

Noun

daddy (plural daddies)

1. (usually childish) Father.

   Synonyms: dad, dada, papa, pop; see also Thesaurus:father

2. (informal, with article) A perfect example, a role model.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:exemplar

   the daddy of them all

   • 2007 November 12, Mark Lawson, “The king of faction”, in The Guardian‎^[1]:

     [Norman Mailer] was, though, absolutely the daddy of faction, his novels or journalism reporting every conflict from 1939 to Iraq and biographising Americans including John F Kennedy, Marilyn Monroe, Muhammad Ali and Neil Armstrong.

3. (informal, in early use chiefly African-American Vernacular) A male lover.
   • 1955, Ray Charles, Greenbacks:

     She looked at me with that familiar desire
     Her eyes lit up like they were on fire
     She said, "My name's Flo, and you're on the right track,
     But look here, daddy, I wear furs on my back,
     So if you want to have fun in this man's land,
     Let Lincoln and Jackson start shaking hands."

4. (dated slang) An informal term of address for a man.

   Rock 'n' roll is cool, daddy, and you know it!

5. (BDSM, sexual slang) A dominant male partner, often used as an address.

   The guy I've been dating offered to do bondage with me, and I was like "Yes please, daddy."

   • 1988 May 7, Christopher Wittke, “It Takes Two To Tango”, in Gay Community News, page 10:

     The very attractive Daddy-type in the harness and cap.

6. (slang) A male juvenile delinquent in a reformatory who dominates the other inmates through threats and violence.
   • 2004, David Wilson, Sean O'Sullivan, Images of Incarceration, page 162:

     However, what is of interest is that it is clear that the staff have to use the prisoners to run the borstal and thus do not object to, or try to control the inmate subculture that produces 'daddies', violence, sexual assault and racism, […]

   • 2015, Noel 'Razor' Smith, The Criminal Alphabet: An A-Z of Prison Slang:

     The daddies were the chaps of the old borstal system, leaders who had clawed their way to the top of the borstal food chain by showing gameness and the ability and willingness to inflict serious violence on their fellow detainees.

7. (slang, obsolete) A stage manager.
8. (slang, obsolete) The person who gives away the bride at a wedding, in the absence of her actual father.
9. (slang, obsolete) An accomplice selected to win the prize in a fraudulent raffle or lottery.
10. (slang, obsolete) The man in charge of a casual ward, generally an elderly pauper.

Derived terms

• baby daddy
• baby-daddy
• big daddy
• daddy dom
• daddy issues
• daddy-long-legs
• daddy-o
• daddy stitch
• dollar of the daddies
• grand-daddy
• harder daddy
• high-daddy
• mack daddy
• sky daddy
• skydaddy
• Splenda daddy
• sugar daddy
• the daddy of them all
• war daddy
• who's your daddy
• zaddy

 

Translations

father

• Albanian: babi (sq) m
• Arabic: بَابَا m (bābā), أَبِي (ar) m (ʔabī) (my father)
• Armenian: պապա (hy) (papa)
• Azerbaijani: dədə
• Belarusian: та́та m (táta), ба́ця m (bácja)
• Bulgarian: та́тко (bg) m (tátko)
• Chinese:

  Hokkien: 阿爸 (zh-min-nan) (a-pah), 阿爹 (zh-min-nan) (a-tia), 老爸 (zh-min-nan) (lāu-pē)

  Mandarin: 爸爸 (zh) (bàba), 爹 (zh) (diē)

• Czech: tatínek (cs) m
• Danish: farmand c
• Dutch: papa (nl) m, pappa (nl) m, pappie (nl) m, vake m (Flemish)
• Esperanto: paĉjo (eo)
• Estonian: issi (et), taat (et)
• Finnish: isi (fi), iskä (fi), faija (fi) (slang), fatsi (fi) (slang)
• French: papa (fr) m
• Georgian: მამიკო (mamiḳo), მამა (mama)
• German: Vati (de) m, Papa (de) m, Papi (de) m
• Hebrew: אַבָּא (he) m (ába)
• Hindi: अब्बा (hi) m (abbā), बाबा (hi) m (bābā), बापू (hi) m (bāpū), पिताजी m (pitājī)
• Icelandic: pabbi (is)
• Ido: patreto (io)
• Irish: daidí m, deaide m
• Italian: papà (it), babbo (it)
• Japanese: お父さん (ja) (おとうさん, otōsan), パパ (ja) (papa)
• Korean: 아빠 (ko) (appa), 아버지 (ko) (abeoji)
• Kurdish:

  Central Kurdish: بابە (ckb) (babe), باوکە (bawke)

• Latin: tata m
• Latvian: tētis m
• Lithuanian: tėtis (lt) m
• Macedonian: тато m (tato), тате m (tate), татко (mk) m (tatko)
• Marathi: बाबा m (bābā)
• Navajo: azhéʼé
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: pappa (no) m

• Persian:

  Iranian Persian: بابا (fa) (bâbâ)

• Polish: tatuś (pl) m, tata (pl) m, tato (pl) m
• Portuguese: papá (pt)
• Romanian: tătic (ro)
• Russian: па́па (ru) m (pápa), па́почка (ru) m (pápočka), тя́тя (ru) m (tjátja) (obsolete), ба́тюшка (ru) m (bátjuška)
• Sanskrit: तात (sa) m (tāta)
• Scottish Gaelic: boban m, dadaidh m
• Slovak: tatko (sk) m, tatík m, otecko m, ocko (sk) m, apko m, apík m
• Slovene: očka m
• Spanish: papá (es) m, papito (es) m, papaíto m
• Swedish: pappa (sv) c
• Tajik: дада (dada), дадо (dado)
• Taos: tǫ̂mʼȕ
• Thai: คุณพ่อ (kun pɔ̂ɔ), พ่อ (th) (pɔ̂ɔ), ป๊า (bpáa), ป๋า (th) (bpǎa)
• Turkish: baba (tr)
• Ukrainian: та́то m (táto), тату́сь m (tatúsʹ)
• Urdu: بابا m (bābā), اَبّا (ur) m (abbā), باپ m (bāp), دادا m (dādā)
• Vietnamese: bố (vi), ba (vi), cha (vi), thầy (vi), tía (vi)
• Volapük: fatül (vo)
• Yoruba: baba

male lover

• Latvian: papucītis m
• Navajo: azhéʼé
• Spanish: papito (es) m, papi (es) m

References

• Obsolete slang senses: John Camden Hotten (1873) The Slang Dictionary

Verb

daddy (third-person singular simple present daddies, present participle daddying, simple past and past participle daddied)

1. (transitive, chiefly Appalachia) To father; to sire.
   • 1965, Havilah Babcock, Jaybirds Go to Hell on Friday: And Other Stories:

     "Just supposin' Mister has daddied a pup here and there," said old man Rivers. "What's wrong with that? Ain't your foxhounds han'some and hard-runnin'?" "But they all pint birds," said my Pa. "Whoever heered of a foxhound pintin' birds?"

   • 1997, Larry L. King, True Facts, Tall Tales, and Pure Fiction, →ISBN:

     Grieving apparently wasn't a full-time job, however, since Hank up and married a gal named Billie Jean and daddied a daughter by yet another consoler.

Adjective

daddy (comparative daddier, superlative daddiest)

1. (slang, uncommon) Resembling or characteristic of a dad.
   • 2003 June 15, Jay Boyar, “Dad as dude”, in Orlando Sentinel, page F9:

     In 1989, Hollywood brought us Field of Dreams, one of the daddiest dad movies ever.

   • 2006, Barth Anderson, The Patron Saint of Plagues, Bantam Spectra, →ISBN, page 105:

     Stark flinched and fired, and he wished, instead, that he’d held the revolver in the kid’s face, telling the frightened boy to drop his rifle in the loudest, deepest, daddiest voice he could muster.

   • 2014 June 16, Zach Schonfeld, “We Interviewed a Ton of Dads About Dad Rock”, in Vice‎^[2], archived from the original on 28 May 2019:

     Curiously, many of the younger dads were more comfortable saying that they listen to dad rock, while older dads were more defensive about it, despite pledging allegiance to some of the daddiest classic rock dinosaurs in the history of dads.

   • 2015, Ferrett Steinmetz [pen name; William Steinmetz], The Flux, Angry Robot, →ISBN:

     “But I’m bored.” He chucked her on the chin. “It builds character.” “Ghod,” Valentine huffed. “That is the daddiest thing you could say ever. Don’t listen to him, Aliyah, all boredom ever builds is naps.”

   • 2017, Erin Chack, This Is Really Happening, Razorbill, →ISBN, page 80:

     The only music we had besides the radio were three songs Jordan had downloaded to his phone: Billy Joel’s “Vienna,” Bob Seger’s “We’ve Got Tonight,” and Bad Company’s “Bad Company”—the daddiest of all dad rock, but our only reprieve during the long stretches of static.

   • 2020, Sophie Labelle, My Dad Thinks I’m a Boy?!: A Trans Positive Children’s Book, London, Philadelphia, Pa.: Jessica Kingsley Publishers, →ISBN:

     He’s the daddiest dad I’ve ever had.

See also

• mom (Canada, South Africa, US, West Midlands)
• mommy (Canada, US)
• mum
• mummy

Further reading

• “daddy n.”, in Green’s Dictionary of Slang, Jonathon Green, 2016–present