PAPA

Pronunciation (US): (GB):

I. (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

An informal term for a father; probably derived from baby talk

Synonyms:

dad; dada; daddy; pa; papa; pappa; pop

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Hypernyms ("papa" is a kind of...):

begetter; father; male parent (a male parent (also used as a term of address to your father))

Credits

Context examples:

But papas and mammas, and brothers, and intimate friends are a good deal gone by, to most of the frequenters of Bath—and the honest relish of balls and plays, and everyday sights, is past with them.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

He is but young, and his uncle, perhaps—My dear papa, he is three-and-twenty.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

I am staying at the house of papa's agent, Mr. Waterbrook, in Ely Place, Holborn.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Would I sketch a portrait of her, to show to papa?

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

“I am not going to run away, papa,” said Kitty fretfully.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

My papa is a syndic—he is M. Frankenstein—he will punish you.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

We should all have liked her a great deal better; and papa and mamma always think it was her great friend Lady Russell's doing, that she did not.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

The excellent papa labored under the delusion that he was, and reveled in long discussions with the kindred spirit, till a chance remark of his more observing grandson suddenly enlightened him.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

My dear papa, I sent the whole hind-quarter.