Talk:dad

Etymology

This etymology is attestable. It was stated by a Welsh etymologist that TAD was borrowed[1] from English, because of the older Welsh ATHAR (father) = Gaelic (father). That statement is unfounded, because Cornish TĀS answers completely to the sound differences between Welsh and Cornish[7]. TĀS is not borrowed[0] from English; that is obvious. In the oldest language forms derived from the P.I.E. root the 'd' apparently dropped, hence the Old Norse form and that of Gothic as well as in Greek from Proto-Indo-European *dátta (“father”), whence Sanskrit TATA (father); although it is retained in Celtic dialects. Alternatively, considering that older Welsh and Gaelic have forms beginning with ATH- and a similar form is also found in the insular tongue of Basque to Old English *ætta, *atta, when dentals previously predominated over the use of the gutterals found in Celtic and Brittonic dialects, they are likely to have survived from the tongue of ancient peoples before any movements of the Indo-Europeans[7]. It can be shown that all these infantile echoic words have survived millennia: BABE, MAMA and DADA[6].

[0] means 'Absolutely not; [1] means 'Exceedingly unlikely'; [2] means 'Very dubious'; [3] means 'Questionable'; [4] means 'Possible'; [5] means 'Probable'; [6] means 'Likely'; [7] means 'Most Likely' or *Unattested; [8] means 'Attested'; [9] means 'Obvious' - only used for close matches within the same language or dialect, at linkable periods.

Andrew H. Gray 21:15, 4 November 2015 (UTC Andrew (talk)

Capitalisation of 'dad'

Would it be possible for someone with more knowledge than I have to include some usage notes on the capitalisation of 'dad'? Seems as though when used to refer to your own father it is often written 'Dad', but I can't say much about it. CrisH7 (talk) 13:23, 26 June 2018 (UTC)

If it is used in addressing someone, as a name, yes: 'My dear Dad, ...'.

Otherwise, no: 'My dad went to the shop.' — This unsigned comment was added by 115.70.29.185 (talk) at 17:45, 29 December 2020 (UTC).

Etymology needs to be re-written

by a linguist who speaks the related languages.
POSSIBLY RELATED to Russian?? It's perfectly identical phonetically and in meaning: дeд means grandfather.
Also, what is shown in the article as a Russian example - is wrong. де́душка is NOT “grandfather” but 'sweet/dear little grandfather'. Look up -ушка.
Also, Hungarian is not included: 'déd' and 'dédi' mean old. Dédipapa means great grandfather and dédimama is great grandmother.
What other languages are missing?
These 'authoring' by amateurs need to be stopped. There is enough problem with trained scientists and their chauvinism. — This unsigned comment was added by 115.70.29.185 (talk) at 17:38, 29 December 2020 (UTC).

"These 'authoring' by amateurs need to be stopped". Let's start with you. You have no idea how etymology works, you obviously have no training in the field, and you obviously haven't consulted any other dictionaries, or you would have noticed that what they say is pretty similar to what we have. Also, I know of at least one "linguist who speaks the related languages" (not me) who has worked on this etymology. "Nursery words" for immediate family of babies tend to sound similar across the languages of the world, but that's another matter. Chuck Entz (talk) 14:22, 30 October 2022 (UTC)