# Origin of the word 'Dad' **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [May 29, 2005, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-the-word-dad/306007 "2005-05-29T19:28:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![topc2011](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eb9ed0/32.png) [@topc2011](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/topc2011)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2005, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-the-word-dad/306007/1 "2005-05-29T19:28:53Z")
The questioner asks where the word ‘dad’ comes from as used by children. Surely it and ‘mum’ arise as they are two sounds easily made by babies. You know dad dad dad dad , mum mum mum mmm etc as they practise making sounds. The proud parents associate these sounds as being directed to them as they stare lovingly at their offspring. Original message and reply. [http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mdad.html](http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mdad.html) Martin ---
**Author:** ![Mathochist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c89c15/32.png) [@Mathochist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mathochist)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2005, 11:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-the-word-dad/306007/2 "2005-05-30T11:09:59Z")
> [@topc2011](#): > > The questioner asks where the word ‘dad’ comes from as used by children. > > Surely it and ‘mum’ arise as they are two sounds easily made by babies. > You know dad dad dad dad , mum mum mum mmm etc as they practise making sounds. The proud parents associate these sounds as being directed to them as they stare lovingly at their offspring. > > Original message and reply. > [http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mdad.html](http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mdad.html) > > Martin Um, that’s pretty much exactly what the O.E.D. said in the mailbag response, although not quite so explicitly… ---
**Author:** ![RM\_Mentock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e274bd/32.png) [@RM\_Mentock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RM_Mentock)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2005, 12:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-the-word-dad/306007/3 "2005-05-30T12:49:09Z")
> [@topc2011](#): > > You know dad dad dad dad , mum mum mum mmm etc as they practise making sounds. The proud parents associate these sounds as being directed to them as they stare lovingly at their offspring. But that doesn’t explain who they think is lala ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2005, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-the-word-dad/306007/4 "2005-05-30T13:24:09Z")
[Here’s](http://www.wordwizard.com/critq3.htm) an article claiming the origin of _dad_ is in the Romani (Gypsy) language. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2005, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-the-word-dad/306007/5 "2005-05-30T17:54:51Z")
Couldn’t it come from ‘dada’? That’s almost as easy for an infant to say as mama. ---
**Author:** ![dotchan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9d8465/32.png) [@dotchan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dotchan)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2005, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-the-word-dad/306007/6 "2005-05-31T01:10:24Z")
> [@Spectre of Pithecanthropus](#): > > Couldn’t it come from ‘dada’? Nonsense! 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2005, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-the-word-dad/306007/7 "2005-05-31T03:47:45Z")
> [@](#): > > But that doesn’t explain who they think is lala Judging from my own experience, it’s a miracle that sound didn’t come to mean “big sister”. In point of fact, my first intelligible uttering was “big sister”, or a reasonable approximation thereof. ---
**Author:** ![RiverRunner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/977dab/32.png) [@RiverRunner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RiverRunner)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2005, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-the-word-dad/306007/8 "2005-05-31T18:40:42Z")
> [@RM Mentock](#): > > But that doesn’t explain who they think is lala That’s easy. Lala is one of the Teletubbies – either the green one or the yellow one. Yes, I have a small child. Why do you ask? RR ---
**Author:** ![RiverRunner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/977dab/32.png) [@RiverRunner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RiverRunner)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2005, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-the-word-dad/306007/9 "2005-05-31T18:42:51Z")
Dadblame it! You let your subscription expire for a measly few days and you lose the “Charter” off of your membership. Life is no longer worth living. RR ---
**Author:** ![elelle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f0a364/32.png) [@elelle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elelle)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2005, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-the-word-dad/306007/10 "2005-06-01T02:51:30Z")
Granted, a rather WAG,and though I’ve searched, can’t find substance, so will go with the guess. MaMa is a nursing cry, mimicing the mouth at the breast. DaDa is referring to the Other guy, over there, Da …for lack of a better term. Pa might be that sort of infantile directive, too. ---
**Author:** ![Daithi\_Lacha](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/daithi_lacha/32/5430_2.png) [@Daithi\_Lacha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Daithi_Lacha)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2005, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-the-word-dad/306007/11 "2005-06-01T14:33:45Z")
I remember reading (and I’m unable to cite, of course), that it’s easier for infants to make an open-mouth sound first, and _then_ close their lips, so the sound produced would be “amma” or “abba.” Abba being, of course, the word for “father” in Hebrew and Greek. I could be wrong about the languages, and I’m open to correction. The gist of the piece was that in those patriarchal societies, they made sure that the first sound an infant produced would be the word “father.” I’m sure this is conjecture. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2005, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-the-word-dad/306007/12 "2005-06-01T15:29:26Z")
Except that the various “m” sounds (all of which mean mother) generally come before the “d”, “b”, or “p” sounds (which mean father, in various languages and dialects). ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2005, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-the-word-dad/306007/13 "2005-06-01T15:41:26Z")
In its section on Child Language Development, the authoritative _Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language_ has this to say on babbling: > [@](#): > > There is a considerable similarity in infant babbling patterns, whatever their language environment. … [C]onsonants which are heard frequently in English babbling account in fact for about 95% of all consonants heard [in Arfikaans, Mayan, Luo, Thai, Japanese, Hindi, Chinese, Slovenian, Dutch, Spanish, German, Arabic, Norwegian, Latvian, and English]. Only the consonants [m] and \*\* turn up in every one of those languages, but [h], [d], [t], [n], and [p] turn up in at least 10. However, this was taken from a small-scale study of a limited number of infants by J. Locke in his book _Phonological acquisition and change_.