Ätti

See also: atti, ätti, átti, and åtti

Alemannic German

FWOTD – 19 July 2020

Alternative forms

• attò, attu, àttu (Italy)
• attò, attu, àttu

Etymology

From Middle High German atte, from Old High German atto.

Cognate with Latin atta (“father”) and Albanian atë (“father”). The word was probably originally only a vocative, but was extended with a full paradigm in most descendants, including Germanic where it was reformed as a masculine n-stem.

Pronunciation

• (Switzerland) IPA^(key): /ˈætti/

Noun

Ätti m (plural Ätti) (Switzerland)

1. father, dad
   • 1834, Johann Peter Hebel, “Die Vergänglichkeit [Transitoriness]”, in J. P. Hebels sämmtliche Werke. Erster Band. Allemannische Gedichte, page 177:

     Der Bueb seit zum Aetti: / Fast allmol, Aetti, wenn mer’s Röttler Schloß / so vor de Auge stoht, se denki dra, / öbs üsem Hus echt au e mol so goht.

     The boy to the father: / Father, whenever Rötteln Castle / lies in front of my eyes, I wonder / if the same will happen to our house, one day.

2. grandfather
3. forefather