Vater

See also: váter, vàter, vatër, and Väter

English

Etymology

Borrowed from German Vater.

Proper noun

Vater (plural Vaters)

1. A surname from German.

Statistics

• According to the 2010 United States Census, Vater is the 37076^th most common surname in the United States, belonging to 602 individuals. Vater is most common among White (95.85%) individuals.

Further reading

• Hanks, Patrick, editor (2003), “Vater”, in Dictionary of American Family Names, volume 3, New York City: Oxford University Press, →ISBN.

German

Alternative forms

• Vatter (obsolete, except informally, representing the regional pronunciation)

Etymology

From Middle High German vater, from Old High German fater, from Proto-West Germanic *fader, from Proto-Germanic *fadēr, from Proto-Indo-European *ph₂tḗr. Germanic cognates include Dutch vader, Low German Vader, English father, Danish fader, Gothic 𐍆𐌰𐌳𐌰𐍂 (fadar).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈfaːtər/, /ˈfaːtɐ/, [ˈfɑːtʰɐ]
• IPA^(key): [ˈfatʰɐ] (Rheinish, Westphalian)
• IPA^(key): [ˈfɑːtər] (Swiss, Austro-Bavarian)

• audio (Austria)

  (file)

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

Vater m (strong, genitive Vaters, plural Väter, diminutive Väterchen n)

1. father

   Coordinate terms: (by birth order) Sohn m; (by sex) Mutter f

   Mein Vater erklärt mir jeden Sonntag unsere neun Planeten.

   My father explains to me our nine planets every Sunday.

Declension

Declension of Vater [masculine, strong]

	singular			plural
	indef.	def.	noun	def.	noun
nominative	ein	der	Vater	die	Väter
genitive	eines	des	Vaters	der	Väter
dative	einem	dem	Vater	den	Vätern
accusative	einen	den	Vater	die	Väter

Derived terms

• Ältervater
• Beichtvater
• Doktorvater
• Familienvater
• Gottvater
• Großvater
• Gründervater
• Kirchenvater
• Landesvater
• Pflegevater
• Rabenvater
• Stammvater
• Stiefvater
• Übervater
• Urvater
• Vater-Mutter-Kind
• Vaterbruder
• Vaterfigur
• Vaterhaus
• Vaterland
• väterlich
• vaterlos
• Vatermörder
• Vaterschaft
• Vaterschwester
• Vatersmutter
• Vatersname
• Vatersschwester
• Vaterstadt
• Vatertag
• Vaterunser
• wie der Vater, so der Sohn
• Ziehvater

 

Related terms

• Gevatter

Further reading

• “Vater” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache
• “Vater” in Uni Leipzig: Wortschatz-Lexikon
• “Vater” in Duden online
• Vater on the German Wikipedia.Wikipedia ^de
• Friedrich Kluge (1883) “Vater”, in John Francis Davis, transl., Etymological Dictionary of the German Language, published 1891