Here in the USofA it is Fathers Day - a day on which fathers are gifted and feted. I heard a couple of songs on the radio that got me to thinking about all the diferent ways there are of saying "Father."
Father, Pater, Pop, Papa, Dad, Daddy, and (particularly if you are Irish)"Himself" and of course, The Old Man.
It was Dad or Daddy around my home. What about you?
And to all you Dads out there - Happy Fathers Day!
Daddy.
and thanks for the wishes. we just had a delightful cookout, the boys are now making a bonfire to roast marshmallows, and I plan to spend the rest of the afternoon relaxing! yippee!
my father is the irish Da (dah),9not dad, my son is called poppa by his children, and my nieghbors childern, call their father abba, (they are orthodox jews, and abba is father in hewbrew)
Pa was a common expression, particularly out west.
(Which gave rise to the joke about the three-legged dog who walked into the saloon looking for the man who shot his pa).
We always used dad in our family; but my dad's dad was pa.
heard some songs on the radio
The best father and son song ever written was Father and Son by Cat Stevens, IMO:
FATHER AND SON
Cat Stevens
Father
It's not time to make a change,
Just relax, take it easy.
You're still young, that's your fault,
There's so much you have to know.
Find a girl, settle down,
If you want you can marry.
Look at me, I am old, but I'm happy.
I was once like you are now, and I know that it's not easy,
To be calm when you've found something going on.
But take your time, think a lot,
Why, think of everything you've got.
For you will still be here tomorrow, but your dreams may not.
Son
How can I try to explain, when I do he turns away again.
It's always been the same, same old story.
From the moment I could talk I was ordered to listen.
Now there's a way and I know that I have to go away.
I know I have to go.
Father
It's not time to make a change,
Just sit down, take it slowly.
You're still young, that's your fault,
There's so much you have to go through.
Find a girl, settle down,
if you want you can marry.
Look at me, I am old, but I'm happy.
Son
All the times that I cried, keeping all the things I knew inside,
It's hard, but it's harder to ignore it.
If they were right, I'd agree, but it's them you know not me.
Now there's a way and I know that I have to go away.
I know I have to go.
© 1971 by Cat Stevens
Back in California it was dad, but here in Germany my father-in-law is Vati (FAH-tee)or Papi (PAH-pee), the latter being more intimate.
??
You heard him right, Alex. As in, "You just wait till Himself comes home!"
You heard him right
Since when is our High Priestess WOW a "him"? Herself is not going to be amused, Faldage.
Himself, is not a children's term. adult children might use to to refer to their Da, but (in my experience) not use himself to his face-then he was Da(h)..
my mother would say, Himself when talking about my Da.
(my mother (and Nana) disliked the pronouns he and she and would rant when we used them at home:
'and who the hell is she?.. she is nobody but a cat's mother.. use her name!'
so rather than saying 'he went and bought himself a car' about my father, she's say 'Himself went a bought a car'.
I don't know why she ranted about he/she... but other adults (in and from ireland) took the same tone when we were kids.. so its either a dublin thing, or irish thing.. (what do you say rubrick?)
My grandmother (from the South of Scotland) used to say much the same thing: "Who's she? The cat's mother?"
Quinion has a note on the expression at
http://www.quinion.com/words/qa/qa-cat1.htmBingley
My Grandmother used the "cat's mother" phrase when I was a child - in the 1930s - and she was born right here in USA although she was of Irish descent.
We used Himself to mean my Father and Herself for my Mother, but not to his/her face!!
The Himself and Herself were later used to mean the "Top Dog" in any situation. I *once heard an employee of the company - of which my Dad was general manager - refer to my Dad as Himself.
My mother (Polish but not from Poland) had the same aversion to using he or she when speaking of an older person - wasn't respectful enough, particularly for one's parents. Maybe a generational thing? Or do young(ish) people (ie, under 60
) feel the same?
My paternal grandmother of German descent (Alsace-Lorraine, so there's prolly some French & Italian in there, too) used to react the same way to those pronouns. "Who's she!?" she'd always emphatically correct. Even if we had indicated the person just previously, and especially if it was my Mom or someone of authority to a child.
us: "Mom said we could sat up late. And she said we could watch the movie, too."
Grandmom: "Who's she!"
This always left us pretty confused for an answer.
Thanks for putting up the Cat Stevens song, Juan. On the other side of the pond, I was listening to it on the radio as I drove north from Cork to Ennis.