Daddy

How to spell daddy

5 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce daddy

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does daddy mean?

1. nounAn informal, affectionate term for one's father.

Daddy in a sentence

• The toddler ran to her daddy at the airport gate.

• Every daddy in the playgroup took a turn pushing the swings.

Where does daddy come from?

Language of origin: Unknown

This is an affectionate diminutive of 'dad', a familiar word for father whose origins are genuinely uncertain. 'Dad' is first recorded in English in the 1500s, but most scholars believe it is far older than the written record and arose independently in many languages as one of the very first sounds a baby can produce, the simple repeated 'da-da'. Because such nursery syllables emerge naturally in infants the world over, similar forms turn up in unrelated languages, from Welsh 'tad' to Greek 'tata', without any of them necessarily being borrowed from another. The 'daddy' form simply adds the soft, fond '-y' ending English loves for pet names, the same ending seen in 'mummy', 'doggy', and 'granny'. Spelling it is easy once you remember the consonant in the middle is doubled, mirroring the short 'a' sound, just as in 'mommy' or 'teddy'.

How the word is built

• dad (informal: father)
• -dy (affectionate diminutive ending)