Grandpa

How to spell grandpa

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce grandpa

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does grandpa mean?

1. nounAn informal, affectionate word for one's grandfather.

Grandpa in a sentence

• Every summer the children stayed with their grandpa on the farm.

• Grandpa taught me how to fix the old radio in his shed.

Where does grandpa come from?

Language of origin: French

This is an affectionate everyday word built from 'grand' and 'pa'. The 'grand' element comes from French grand, meaning 'great' or 'large', which descends from Latin grandis with the same sense; in kinship terms English borrowed the French habit of using grand to mark a relative one generation further removed, just as in 'grandmother' and 'grandchild'. The 'pa' part is a clipped, intimate form of 'papa', itself an old nursery word for 'father' echoed across many languages because of the easy 'pa' sound a baby makes. 'Grandpapa' appeared in English in the 1700s, and the cosier 'grandpa' followed soon after as the spoken, domestic version. The spelling is straightforward, but the single trap is that it ends in a plain '-pa' with no silent letters and never an apostrophe.

How the word is built

• grand- (great, one generation removed)
• -pa (familiar shortening of papa, father)