Father sb. World English Historical Dictionary

Father sb. World English Historical Dictionary Dictionary Biographies Literary Criticism Welcome Terms of Service ⧏ Previous Next ⧐ Contents Slice Contents Key Bibliographic Record Murray’s New English Dictionary. 1901, rev. 2022. Father sb. Forms: 1–3 fæder (1 -yr), feder, (3 feader), 2–6 fader, (3 Orm. faderr), (south. dial. 3 væder, veder, 3–4 vader), 3–4 fadre, 4–5 fadir(e, -ur(e, -yr, 4 faþer, 6– father. [Com. Teut. and Aryan: OE. fæder corresponds to OFris. feder, fader, OS. fadar, fader (LG., Du. vader, vaar), OHG. fater (MHG. and mod.G. vater), ON. faðer, -ir (Sw., Da. fader, far), Goth. fadar (found only Gal. iv. 6, the ordinary word being atta):—OTeut. fader, ? fadēr:—OAryan pətē·r (pəte·r-, pətr-). whence Skr. pitṛ, Gr. πατήρ, L. pater, OIr. athir.

1   The spelling in our quots. is uniformly with d until 16th c., exc. that faþer occurs sporadically in the Cotton and Göttingen MSS. of the Cursor Mundi (a. 1300); but the pronunciation (ð) may have been widely current in the 15th c. or even earlier; in 14–15th c. the spelling with -der is very common in words like brother, feather, leather, though this spelling cannot in all cases be supposed to indicate that the writers pronounced the words with (d). The mod.Eng. -ther for OE. -der, -dor in father and mother is often wrongly said to be due to the analogy of brother, or to Scandinavian influence; it is really the result of a phonetic law common to the great majority of Eng. dialects: other examples in standard Eng. are gather, hither, together, weather. At present nearly all dialects pronounce father and mother with (ð) in standard Eng.; in various parts of the north of England and the north Lowlands (d), alveolar or dental, is sometimes heard. The representation of OE. æ, a by (ā) in this word is anomalous.

2   In OE. the genitive had the two forms fæder (cf. OS. fader, OHG. fater, ON. fǫður) and fæderes. The uninflected form survived in occasional use down to the 15th c.]

3   1.  One by whom a child is or has been begotten, a male parent, the nearest male ancestor. Rarely applied to animals.

4 c. 825.  Vesp. Psalter, xxvi[i]. 10. Forðon feder min & modur min forleorton mec.

5 c. 1000.  Ælfric, Deut. xxiv. 16. Ne slea man fæderas for suna gylton.

6 c. 1200.  Trin. Coll. Hom., 165. Ðe sune wussheð þe fader deað ar his dai cume.

7 c. 1290.  S. Eng. Leg., I. 14/457. He liet … maken him king of al is fader lond.

8 c. 1350.  Will. Palerne, 241. A kowherde, sire … is my kynde fader.

9 c. 1400.  Rom. Rose, 4863. Whanne fader or moder arn in grave.

10 1473.  Warkw., Chron., 10. Gaff it Herry Percy, whos fadere was slayne at Yorke felde.

11 1571.  Lyndesay, MS. Collect. The litill birdis straikis thair fader in the face with thair wingis.

12 1597.  Montgomerie, Answ. Ingliss Railar, 12. Brutus … Quha slew his fader howping to succeid.

13 1670.  G. H., Hist. Cardinals, II. II. 144. From him it was Ginetti learn’d his Covetousness, and proved his Fathers own Son.

14 1753.  Hanway, Trav. (1762), I. II. xiv. 62. Modern refinements, which in some countries have rendered it unpolite for a son to call his father by that endearing name, is little known among them.

15 1855.  [John Swanson Jacobs], The Empire (Sydney), 25 April, 2/1. To be a man and not to be—a father without authority—a husband and no protector—is far pleasanter to dream of than to experience.
  Such is the condition of every slave throughout the United States.

15b 1884.  Tennyson, Becket, V. ii. His father gave him to my care.

16   b.  fig. (Quots. 15972 and 1802 have given rise to proverbial phrases.)

17 1398.  Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XVII. i. (1495), 591. Aristotle sayth that the erthe is moder and the sonne fader of trees.

18 1577.  B. Googe, Heresbach’s Husb., II. (1586), 75 b. So shall the branch [when grafted] live, being both nourished by his olde Mother, and his newe Father.

19 1597.  Shaks., 2 Hen. IV., I. i. 8.                    Eu’ry minute now Should be the Father of some Stratagem.     Ibid., IV. v. 93. Thy wish was Father (Harry) to that thought.

20 1604.  Jas. I., Counterbl. (Arb.), 102. The foure Complexions, (whose fathers are the foure Elements).

21 1802.  Wordsw., Rainbow. The child is father of the man.

22 1859.  Kingsley, Misc. (1860), I. 7. He is wonderfully careless as to authorities, and too often makes the wish father to the thought—indeed to the fact.

23   c.  (More explicitly spiritual father.) The teacher to whom a person owes his religious life.

24 1382.  Wyclif, 1 Cor. iv. 15. If ȝe han ten thousandis of litle maistris in Crist Jhesu, but not manye fadris.

25 1769.  H. Venn, in Life (1835), 152. A lady said to me, ‘You, sir, are my spiritual father.’

26 a. 1858.  Bp. D. Wilson, in Bateman, Life (1860), II. 208. As our Father Scott used to say.

27   d.  Proverbs.

28 1549.  Latimer, 3rd Serm. bef. Edw. VI. (Arb.), 97. Happye is the chylde, whose father goeth to the Deuyll.

29 1616.  Surfl. & Markh., Country Farme, 400. This is it which some vtter in a prouerbe: That he that will plant his father must cut off his head.

30 c. 1645.  Howell, Lett. (1650), II. 118. He will be a wise child that knows his right father.

31   e.  Colloquially extended to include a father-in-law, stepfather, or one who adopts another as his child (more fully adoptive father).

32 1592.  Shaks., Rom. & Jul., IV. i. 2.          Par.  My Father Capulet will haue it so; And I am nothing slow, to slacke his haste.     Ibid. (1599), Much Ado, IV. i. 24.   Clau.  Stand thee by Frier, father, by your leaue, Will you with free and vnconstrained soule Giue me this maid your daughter?     Ibid. (1605), Macb., IV. ii. 63. Son. If he were dead, youl’d weepe for him: if you would not, it were a good signe, that I should quickely haue a new Father.

33 1798.  Colebrooke, trans. Digest Hindu Law (1801), III. 147. Sons inferior to these … claim the family of their adoptive father.

34   f.  Applied transf. to the relative or friend who ‘gives away’ a bride.

35 1599.  Shaks., Much Ado, V. iv. 15.        You must be father to your brothers daughter, And giue her to young Claudio.

36 1719.  De Foe, Crusoe (1840), II. vii. 174. I was father at the altar … and gave her away.

37   2.  A male ancestor more remote than a parent, esp. the founder of a race or family, a forefather, progenitor. In pl. ancestors, forefathers. So in Scriptural phr. To be gathered, † to be put to or sleep with one’s fathers: to be dead and buried. Also loosely for ‘a man of old,’ ‘a patriarch.’

38 c. 950.  Lindisfarne Gospels, Luke i. 55. Suæ ȝesprecen wæs to fadores usra.

39 c. 1000.  Ags. Gosp., Matt. iii. 9. & ne cweþað betwux eow we habbað abraham us to fæder.

40 c. 1200.  Trin. Coll. Hom., 226. Vre foremes faderes gult we abugeð alle.

41 1377.  Langl., P. Pl., B. III. 126. Ȝowre fadre she felled þorw fals biheste.

42 1382.  Wyclif, Judg. ii. 10. Al that generacioun is gedrid to her fadris. Ibid., 1 Kings i. 21. Whanne my lord kyng shal sleep with his faders.

43 c. 1400.  Maundev. (1839), vi. 66. The Sarazines kepen full curyously and han the place in gret reuerence for the holy fadres, the patriarkes þat lyȝn þere.

44 a. 1440.  Found. St. Barthol., 34. He decessid, and was put to his fadres.

45 1538.  Starkey, England, I. i. 19. Theyr cyuyle ordynance and statutys, deuysyd by theyr old fatherys in euery secte.

46 1611.  Bible, Acts xiii. 36. For David after he had served his own generation by the will of God, fell on sleepe, and was laide unto his fathers, and saw corruption.

47 1671.  Milton, P. R., I. 351.                    God, who fed Our fathers here with Manna?

48 1791.  Cowper, Yardley Oak, 144.          One man alone, the father of us all, Drew not his life from woman.

49 1848.  Macaulay, Hist. Eng., I. 20. Nor were the arts of peace neglected by our fathers during that stirring period.

50   3.  One who institutes, originates, calls into being; a constructor, contriver, designer, framer, originator. Also one who gives the first conspicuous or influential example of (an immaterial thing). The Fathers (U.S.): the framers of the constitution.

51   Often in designations of Biblical origin. The Father of Lights, etc.: applied to God. The father of faith, of the faithful: Abraham. The father of lies (after John viii. 44): the Devil.

52 1362.  Langl., P. Pl., A. I. 14. He is Fader of Fei.

53 1382.  Wyclif, Jas. i. 17. The fadir of liȝtis.

54 1555.  Eden, Decades, The Preface to the Reader (Arb.), 51. What shulde I here speake of Abraham the father of fayth whose promyses were great, and he cauled the frend of god.

55 1588.  Marprel. Epist. (Arb.), 31. Iohn Cant. was the first father of this horrible error in our Church.

56 1669.  J. Worlidge, Syst. Agric. (1681), 114. In Germany no young Farmer is permitted to Marry … till he … hath planted, and is a father of such a stated number of Wallnut Trees.

57 1700.  Dryden, Fables, Pref. Wks. (Globe), 499. He [Chaucer] is the father of English poetry.

58 1748.  Richardson, Clarissa, Wks. 1883, VI. 275. Hannibal was called the father of warlike stratagems.

59 1795.  Hull Advertiser, 14 Nov., 3/3. Dr. Hooper the father of the canal.

60 1825.  J. Neal, Brother Jonathan, II. 4–5. People, who are on the look out—in such a place—with a silver bullet—a leaf o’ the Bible, for wadding—and a charge of ‘prayer-powder’—powder, over every 365 grains of which, the Lord’s prayer has been said—may have a pop, if they like, at the Father of Lies, himself, with impunity.

61 1829.  Scott, Jrnl. (1890), II. 290. They contain, besides, the very words which were spoken and sung by the fathers of the Reformation, sometimes in the wilderness, sometimes in fetters, sometimes at the stake.

62 1844.  Sir D. Gooch, Diaries (1892), 54. I may … I think, claim to be the father of express trains.

63 1867.  Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., Father, the dockyard name given to the person who constructs a ship of the navy.

64 1875.  Jowett, Plato (ed. 2), I. p. ix., Introduction. To represent Plato as the father of Idealism.

65 1888.  Bryce, Amer. Commw., II. xli. 105. In ‘the days of the Fathers.’

66   b.  pl. The Fathers (of the Church): the early Christian writers; usually applied to those of the first five centuries, but by some extended further. Apostolical Fathers: see APOSTOLICAL.

67 1340.  Ayenb., 155. Ase zayþ þe boc of collacions of holy uaderes.

68 1549.  (Mar.) Bk. Com. Prayer, Pref. If a manne woulde searche out by the auncient fathers.

69 1588.  Shaks., Loves Labour’s Lost, IV. ii. 153. As a certaine Father saith.

70 a. 1641.  Bp. Mountagu, Acts & Mon., iii. § 54 (1642), 200. To this discourse of Basil, other Fathers agree.

71 1710.  Prideaux, Orig. Tithes, 141. Irenæus and Origen, and other Fathers.

72 1776–81.  Gibbon, Decl. & F., xlvii., note. The Greek as well as the Latin fathers.

73 1839.  Longf., Hyperion, IV. vii. I gazed with secret rapture on the vast folios of the Christian Fathers, from which, as from an arsenal, I was to draw the weapons of holy warfare.

74 1887.  Lowell, Democr., Prose Wks. 1890, VI. 14. A Father of the Church said that property was theft many centuries before Proudhon was born.

75   4.  One who exercises protecting care like that of a father; one who shows paternal kindness; one to whom filial reverence and obedience are due. (In OE. applied to a feudal superior.)

76 [?].  O. E. Chron., an. 924. Hine ȝeces þa to fæder & to hlaforde Scotta cyning.

77 1382.  Wyclif, Job xxix. 16. Fader I was of pore men.

78 1460.  Earl of Marche, in Ellis, Orig. Lett., I. 5. I. 9. Oure … ryght noble lorde and ffadur.

79 1591.  Shaks., 1 Hen. VI., III. i. 98.        So kinde a Father of the Common-weale, To be disgraced by an Inke-horne Mate, Wee and our Wiues and Children all will fight, And haue our bodyes slaughtred by thy foes.

80 1627.  Massinger, Gt. Dk. Florence, I. ii.        For her love I will be a father to thee, For thou art my adopted son.

81 1787.  H. Knox, Let., 19 March, Washington’s Writ., 1891, XI. 123, note. The glorious republican epithet, The Father of your Country.

82 1867.  Freeman, Norm. Conq. (1877), I. iii. 143. It was meant to assert that Scots … owed no duty to Rome … but only to their Father and Lord at Winchester.

83   b.  with reference to patronage of literature.

84 1513.  Douglas, Æneis, I. Prol. 85. Fader of bukis, protectour to science.

85 1837–9.  Hallam, Hist. Lit., I. V. I. § 17. 339. Francis I. has obtained a glorious title, the Father of French literature.

86   c.  Applied to a religious teacher or counsellor (cf. 6).

87 1393.  Langl., P. Pl., C. I. 120. ȝe sholde be here fadres, and techen hem betere.

88 c. 1465.  Eng. Chron., 28, Hen. VI. (Camden, 1856), 64. There thay slow him horribly, thair fader and thair bisshoppe.

89 1655.  Fuller, The Church-History of Britain, IX. vii. § 13. He was commonly called Father Gilpin, and well deserved it, for his paternall affections to all.

90 1757.  in Sidney, Life of S. Walker (1838), 281. Dr [dear] Father in the Lord.

91 1828.  Grimshawe, Mem. of L. Richmond (1829), 132. He was regarded by them [the communicants] as a father.

92 1833.  in Sidney, Life of R. Hill (1834), 408. The minister who read the … service, substituted the word father for that of brother.

93   5.  a. Applied to God, expressing His relation to Jesus, to mankind in general (considered either as His offspring, as the objects of His loving care, or as owing Him obedience and reverence), or to Christians (as His children by regeneration or adoption). Also applied to heathen gods.

94 c. 825.  Vesp. Psalter, lxxxviii[i]. 27. He ȝeceð mec feder min ðu earð god min.

95 c. 1000.  Ags. Gosp., Matt. xxiii. 9. An ys eower fædyr se þe on heofonum ys.

96 c. 1200.  Vices & Virtues (1888), 25. And [he] steih in to heuene, and sitt on his fader swiðre.

97 a. 1225.  Ancr. R., 10. Þe is also federleas þet haneð þurh his sunne vorlore þene Veder of heouene.

98 c. 1386.  Chaucer, Pars. T., ¶57. He haþ agilte his fader celestial.

99 1470–85.  Malory, Arthur, XVII. xv. Ioye and honour be to the fader of heuen!

100 1533.  Gau, Richt Vay, To Rdr. (1888), 3. Grace marcie and pece of god our fader.

101 1562.  Winȝet, Last Blast, Wks. 1888, I. 41. The lauchfull vocatioun of His Heuinlie Fader.

102 1775.  J. Harris, Philos. Arrangem., Wks. (1841), 322. To all these relations must be added that chief, though mentioned last, that of the whole universe, and every being in it, to the first, supreme, and intelligent Cause, through which relation they are called his offspring, and he their Father.

103 1821.  Shelley, Prometh. Unb., I. 354.        To thee unwilling, most unwillingly I come, by the great Father’s will driven down, To execute a doom of new revenge.

104 1843.  Macaulay, Lays Anc. Rome, Horatius, lix.        O Tiber! Father Tiber!   To whom the Romans pray.

105 1865.  Tennyson, En. Ard., 785.        Uphold me, Father, in my loneliness A little longer!

106 1871.  Morley, Voltaire (1886), 2. Calvin, again, like some stern and austere step-son of the Christian God, jealous of the divine benignity and abused open-handedness of his father’s house.

107   † b.  Applied to Christ. Obs. rare.

108 1470–85.  Malory, Arthur, XVII. xiv. Fayr fader ihesu Cryste I thanke the.

109 [Hence 1859.  Tennyson, Guinevere, 558. Our fair father Christ.]

110   c.  Theol. (God) the Father: the First Person of the Trinity.

111 c. 1000.  Ags. Gosp., John xiv. 26. Se halȝe frofre gast þe se fæder sent on minum naman eow lærð ealle þing.

112 c. 1175.  Lamb. Hom., 53. Þe feder and þe sune and þe halie gast iscilde us þer wið.

113 a. 1300.  E. E. Psalter, i. Gloria.        Blisse to þe Fadre and to be Sone, And to þe Hali Gaste.

114 c. 1450.  Myrc, 459. Leue on fader and sone & holy gost.

115 1548.  trans. Luther’s Chiefe Articles Chr. Faythe, A vj b. The Holy Goost from the Father and the Sonne procedynge.

116 1737.  Pope, Hor. Epist., II. i. 102.        In Quibbles, Angel and Archangel join, And God the Father turns a School-Divine.

117 1851.  Neale, Mediæv. Hymns, 127.        Honour, laud, and praise addressing To the Father and the Son.

118   6.  Ecclesiastical uses.

119   a.  The title given to a confessor or spiritual director. Also explicitly spiritual and (arch.) ghostly father (but the former, in Eng., has more usually the sense 1 c).

120 a. 1300.  Cursor M., 27857 (Cott.).        O scrift þou do þi faders rede, Sua þat þi saul mai ai be quite.     Ibid., 28076 (Cott.). Til ouer lauerd crist and þe, Mi gastli fader, yeild i me.

121 1393.  Gower, Conf., I. 104. Min holy fader, so I will.

122 1526.  Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W., 1531), 9 b. Takynge penaunce of our goostly father for our transgressyon & synne.

123 1677.  Lady Chaworth, in Hist. MSS. Comm., 12th Rep. App. v. 43. The D[uchess] of Portsmouth … has promised it to her ghostly father.

124 1805.  Scott, Last Minstr., II. vi.        Penance, father, will I none; Prayer know I hardly one.

125   b.  A priest belonging to a religious order or congregation. Also the title given to the superior of a monastic house in relation to those subject to his rule.

126 1571.  Hanmer, Chron. Irel. (1633), 48. He came to Poitiers, and became father of the Monkes of Saint Hilarie.

127 1603.  Shaks., Meas. for M., III. ii. 11. ’Blesse you good Father Frier.

128 1711.  Addison, Spect., No. 164, 7 Sept., ¶ 3. A Father of a Convent who was very much renowned for his piety and exemplary life.

129 1739.  Gray, Jrnl. in France, Wks. 1884, I. 244. It [the Chartreuse] contains about 100 Fathers, and Freres together, & 200 Servants.

130 1756–7.  trans. Keysler’s Trav. (1760), III. 278. S. Maria di Galiera is a beautiful church, and belongs to the fathers of the oratory.

131 1848.  Macaulay, Hist. Eng., II. 99. The skill and care with which those fathers [Jesuits] had … conducted the education of youth.

132   c.  Applied to bishops. Right Reverend, Most Reverend Father in God: the formal designation respectively of a bishop and an archbishop.

133 1508.  Fisher’s Seuen Penit. Ps. This treatyse … was … compyled by the ryght reuerente fader in god Iohan Fyssher … bysshop of Rochester.

134 1521.  (title) The sermon of Iohan the bysshop of Rochester made … by the assignement of the moost reuerend father in god the lord Thomas Cardinall of Yorke.

135 1594.  Shaks., Rich. III., III. vii. 61.        He is within with two right reuerend Fathers, Diuinely bent to Meditation.

136 168[?].  S. Hollingworth, in MS. Bodl. Rawl. Lett. LIX. fol. 190. To the Right Reuerant father in God His Grac Willam Lord Arch Bishshop of Canterbery.

137 1848.  Macaulay, Hist. Eng., II. 354. He had yielded to the intreaties of the fathers of the Church.

138 1869.  Freeman, Norm. Conq. (1876), III. xii. 89. The Pope and the assembled Fathers.

139 Mod.  The most Reverend Father in God (William), by Divine Providence Lord Archbishop of Canterbury.

140   d.  The Holy Father: the Pope.

141 c. 1400.  Maundev. (1839), xxxi. 314. I cam to Rome and schewed my lif to oure holy fadir the Pope.

142 a. 1562.  G. Cavendish, Life Wolsey, App. (1827), 519. They … by force imprisoned our holy Father the Pope.

143   e.  As a prefix to the name of a priest. Also abbreviated F., Fr.

144   Formerly, as still in Continental use, restricted to the regular clergy (see b). In the present century this has become the customary English mode of designating a Roman Catholic priest, even among those not of his own communion: but some secular priests still refuse the title as incorrect, preferring to be addressed as ‘The Rev. A. B.’ The abbreviated forms are seldom used exc. by Roman Catholics.

145   As the prefix ‘Father’ was in the 16th c. used only with the names of members of religious orders, its use was of course not continued in the reformed Church of England. Of late years the title has been applied, among a section of the High Church party, to Anglican priests, and some prominent members of that section are very commonly designated by it.

146 1529.  More, Dyaloge, Wks. 140. The good Scottish freer father Donold.

147 1719.  De Foe, Crusoe (1840), II. xiii. 265. Father Simon was courteous.

148 1741.  Challoner, Missionary Priests. The same year were banished Father William Weston, S.J., Father John Roberts, O.S.B., Mr. Antony Wright and Mr. James West, priests.

149 1890.  Dublin Rev., XXIV. 236. Our readers do not need to be told who Father Faber was.

150   7.  At Cambridge: see quots.

151 1574.  M. Stokys, in Peacock, Stat. Cambridge, App. A. (1841), p. vi. The Father shall enter hys commendacions of hys chyldren.

152 1772.  Jebb, Remarks, 20. The students enter … preceded by a Master of Arts … who on this occasion is called the Father of the College to which he belongs.

153 1803.  Gradus ad Cantabrigiam. Father, one of the Fellows of a College … who … attends all the examinations for Bachelor’s Degree, to see that … justice is done to the men of his own College.

154 1884.  Dickens, Dict. Cambridge, 34. Then the Senior Wrangler … is presented to the Vice Chancellor by his Father (or Prælector) and receives his degree on his knees.

155   8.  A respectful title given to an old and venerable man, and (with personification) to a river.

156 1559.  W. Cunningham, Cosmogr. Glasse, A iv b. How often doth father Moses in his .V. bookes, make mention of Babilon.

157 1607.  Shaks., Cor., V. i. 3. He call’d me Father.

158 1704.  Pope, Windsor Forest, 197.        In vain on Father Thames she calls for Aid, Nor could Diana help her injur’d Maid.

159 1742.  Gray, Eton Coll., 21.        Say, Father Thames … Who foremost now delight to cleave, With pliant arm thy glassy wave?

160 1815.  Southey, Old Man’s Comforts, 1.        ‘You are old, Father William,’ the young man cried;   ‘The few locks which are left you are gray.’

161   9.  The oldest member of a society, etc. (Chiefly, with reference to duration of membership; occas. with reference to age.) Father of the City, the senior alderman of the City of London.

162 1705.  Hearne, Collect., 13 Sept. Sr Robert Clayton … Alderman, the Father of yt City.

163 1837.  Apperley, The Road (1851), 61. Mr. Warde the father of the field, may … be called the father of the road also.

164 1855.  Dickens, Dorrit, vi. You’ll be the Father of the Marshalsea.

165 1880.  Athenæum, 18 Dec., 820/1. Sir Edward Sabine, now in his ninety-second year, is the father of the Society.

166 1895.  Daily Tel., 8 July, 7/3. The Right Hon. C. P. Villiers, M.P., ‘Father of the House of Commons,’ was robbed of his watch on Thursday.

167   b.  Father of the Chapel: see CHAPEL 10.

168 1683.  Moxon, Printing, xxv. 356. The Oldest Freeman is Father of the Chappel.

169 1888.  in Jacobi, Printer’s Vocab.

170   c.  Hence, The presiding member, or president; also, The leading individual of a number.

171 1600.  J. Pory, trans. Leo’s Africa, I. 13. They call Abagni the father of rivers.

172 1704.  Pope, Windsor Forest, 219.          Thou too, great Father of the British Floods! With joyfull Pride survey’st our lofty Woods.

173 1759.  Johnson, Rasselas, i. 1. The mighty emperour, in whose dominions the Father of Waters begins his course.

174 1771.  Smollett, Humph. Cl. (1846), 251. I will take your place … and think myself happy to be hailed ‘Father of the Feast.’

175   10.  pl. (rarely sing.) The leading men or elders of a city or an assembly.

176 1590.  T. Fenne, Frutes, 57. Their was a graue Father of Carthage who boldlie stood foorth.

177 1697.  Dryden, Virg. Æneid, I. 9. From whence the Race of Alban Fathers come.

178 1776–81.  Gibbon, Decl. & F., xlvii. ¶ 13. The fathers, and even the guards, of the council were awed by this martial array. Ibid., II. 93. A council of senators, emphatically styled the Fathers of the City.

179 1828.  Scott, F. M. Perth, vii. They were, indeed, the fathers of the city; and there were bailies and deacons in the honoured number.

180 1837.  Hawthorne, Twice Told T. (1851), II. ii. 34. The Selectmen of Boston, plain, patriarchal fathers of the people, excellent representatives of the old puritanical founders, whose sombre strength had stamped so deep an impress upon the New England character.

181   b.  esp. The senators of ancient Rome. Sometimes Conscript Fathers, see CONSCRIPT a. 1. Also used for: The Patricians.

182 1533.  Bellenden, Livy, II. (1822), 158. The samin yere deceissit Meninius Agrippa, quhilk wes lufit baith with the Faderis and small pepill.

183 1588.  Shaks., Tit. A., III. iii. 1. Heare me graue fathers.

184 1741.  C. Middleton, Cicero, I. V. 382. Metellus declared, with much seeming candor, ‘that though Cicero and he had been enemies, on account of their different sentiments in politics, yet he would give up his resentments to the authority of the Fathers, and the interests of the Republic.’

185 1843.  Macaulay, Lays, The Battle of the Lake Regillus, viii.        The Fathers of the City   Are met in high debate.     Ibid., Horatius, xxxiii. The Tribunes beard the high,   And the Fathers grind the low.

186   11.  attrib. and Comb. a. appositive (sense 1), as father-bird, -dog, -fool, -widower; (sense 1 b) as father-cause, -fount, -grape, -stock, -tree; (sense 5) as Father-God; (sense 6) as father-abbot, -confessor, -director, -jesuit, -preacher, -saint; (sense 9) as father-poet, -ruffian; b. attrib., as father-strength; c. objective, as father-slayer; also father-sick adj.

187 1797.  Mrs. Radcliffe, Italian, xi. The ceremony began with the exhortation of the *Father-Abbot.

188 1795.  Cowper, Pairing Time, 56.        Soon every *father bird and mother Grew quarrelsome, and peck’d each other.

189 1646.  Sir T. Browne, Pseud. Ep., I. i. 1. The first and *father cause of Common Error.

190 1756–7.  trans. Keysler’s Trav. (1760), I. 295. The admonitions of his *father-confessor.

191 1797.  Mrs. Radcliffe, Italian, x. He who appeared to be the *Father-director of the pilgrimage.

192 1862.  H. Marryat, Year in Sweden, I. 459. One specimen preserved was littered by a red bitch, who with the *father-dog was kept tame in the neighbourhood of Stockholm.

193 1864.  Tennyson, Aylmer’s F., 390. One of these old *father-fools.

194 1884.  Schiller, in J. Hall, A Chr. Home, iii. 62.        Love, only love, can guide the creature Up to the *Father-fount of Nature: What were the soul did love forsake her? Love guides the mortal to the Maker.

195 1869.  W. P. Mackay, Grace & Truth (1875), 213. We [Christians] have been made sons of such a *Father-God, in that blessed, holy, separated walk, linked in eternal union with His own beloved Son: shall we not walk like sons?

196 1842.  Tennyson, Will Waterproof’s Lyrical Monologue, 7.        But such [port] whose *father-grape grew fat   On Lusitanian summers.

197 1630.  Wadsworth, Sp. Pilgr., iii. 14. Obedience the Students are bound to bestow vpon *Father Iesuites, & Lay Brothers.

198 1711.  Shaftesb., Charac. (1737), I. 243. Before the Age of Homer; or till such time as this *Father-Poet came into Repute, who depos’d that spurious Race, and gave rise to a legitimate and genuine Kind.

199 1691.  trans. Emilianne’s Frauds Romish Monkes, 277. The one half of the Alms that are gathered in the Church, as well as at the Church-Door, during the Sermon, belongs to the *Father-Preacher.

200 1814.  Scott, Ld. of Isles, III. xxix. The *Father-ruffian of the band.

201 1842.  Sir A. de Vere, A Song of Faith, 108.        Hear holy lessons from the *Father-Saints; Submit our thoughts to heavenly influences.

202 1748.  Richardson, Clarissa, III. lix. 281. So *father-sick! so family-fond!

203 1483.  Cath. Angl., 120. A *Fader slaer, patricida.

204 1598.  Sylvester, Du Bartas, II. ii. III., The Colonies, 526.        From fruitfull loyns of one old *Father-stock, So many branches of man-kinde to flock.

205 1871.  B. Taylor, Faust (1875), II. iii. 206.        And thus the child in that bright season gaineth The *father-strength, as in a dream: We wonder; yet the question still remaineth, If they are men, when Gods they seem.

206 1605.  Sylvester, Da Bartas, II. iii. I., Vocation, 139.        Fruits that (like Load-stones) have a vertue given (Through faith) to draw their *father-tree to heav’n.

207 1845.  Mrs. Norton, The Child of the Islands (1846), 132.        The *Father-Widower, on his Christmas Eve,   Strokes down his youngest child’s long silken hair.

208   12.  Special combinations: father-better a. Sc., better than one’s father [cf. ON. fǫður-betringr sb.]; † father-breeder = father-forger; father-dust, the fructifying powder in the anther of flowers; = POLLEN; father-forger, one who counterfeits writings of the Fathers; father-general, the head or chief of the Society of Jesus; † father-queller, a parricide; father-waur a. Sc., ‘worse than one’s father’ (Jam.). Cf. father-better, and ON. fǫður-verringr sb. Also in syntactical combinations of the uninflected genitive, father-brother, -sister, Sc., a paternal uncle, paternal aunt; FATHER-KIN.

209 1645.  R. Baillie, Lett. (1841), II. 295. Her glowming sonne, whom I pray God to bless, and make *father-better.

210 1624.  Gataker, A Discussion of the Popish Doctrine of Transubstantiation, 103. Vnder his name our Popish *Father-breeders haue of late set out a many of Sermons and Treatises, that haue no testimonie at all from antiquity the most of them.

211 1513.  Douglas, Æneis, VI. vi. 37.        We stand content, it sufficis ws alsua, That ay remane the chaist Proserpyna Within hir *faderis broderis boundis and ring.

212 1609.  Skene, Reg. Maj., 33. The father brother of the fathers side.

213 1728–46.  Thomson, Spring, 538.                  From Family diffus’d To family, as flies the *Father Dust, The varied Colours run.

214 1624.  Gataker, A Discussion of the Popish Doctrine of Transubstantiation, 64. Vnder his name our Popish *Father-forgers have set out diuers things.

215 1587.  Fleming, Contn. Holinshed, III. 1326/1. Their *father generall deliuering them what he hath in office.

216 1679.  Oates, Myst. Iniq., 16. All these … do serve as Intelligencers to the Father General.

217 c. 1440.  Promp. Parv., 145. *Fader Qwellare, patricida.

218 1561.  Daus, trans. Bullinger on Apoc. (1573), 292 b. I thinke the world had neuer a more notable, more cruell, and more shameles murderer, yea or rather a most arrant father queller.

219 a. 1641.  Bp. Mountagu, Acts & Mon., iv. § 52 (1642), 280. Such is the affection of his subjects unto him, such the discipline of our Law and Religion, they would never endure Father-quellers to rule over them, or enter into that sacred Temple built from the foundation, by the murthered.

220 1597.  Skene, De Verb. Sign., s.v. Eneya, The *father sister and her bairnes suld succeede.

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