daddy
(ˈdædɪ)
Also 6 daddye, 6–8 dady, 8–9 daddie.
[dim. of dad n.1: see -y.]
1. colloq. a. A diminutive and endearing form of dad, father.
| ? a 1500 Chester Pl. (Shaks. Soc.) I. 38 As my daddye hath taughte yt me, I will fulfill his lore. [MS. of 1592: Harl. MS. reads ‘father’.] a 1529 Skelton Image Ipocr. 158 Now God save these dadyes And all ther yong babyes. 1552 Huloet, Dadde or daddy, as infantes cal their fathers. 1673 R. Leigh Transproser Reh. 8 Every Nurse can readily point to Daddy's Eyes. 1794 J. Wolcott (P. Pindar) Rowl. for Oliver Wks. II. 413 So [I] ask'd my daddy's leave to study Painting. 1880 M. E. Braddon Just as I am xl, She could not believe that there was a fault in daddy. |
b. irreverently.
| 1749 Chesterfield Lett. II. cxciii. 220 All day long afraid of old Daddy in England. 1892 Spectator 24 Dec. 927/2 In other respects, he is an Old Daddy! |
c. = doyen 2.
| 1925 New Yorker 11 July 11 The Daddy of Sunday Painters. 1959 Times 26 Nov. 16/1 At full-back Uren, who must have been the daddy of the entire party, started falteringly. |
2. Various slang uses (see quots.).
| 1859 Hotten Slang Dict., Daddy, the stage manager.—Theatr. 1860 Ibid. [adds] Daddy, the person who gives away the bride at weddings. 1864 Ibid., At mock raffles, lotteries, &c., the Daddy is an accomplice, most commonly the getter up of the swindle, and in all cases the person that has been previously arranged to win the prize. 1874 Ibid., Daddy, the old man in charge—generally an aged pauper—at casual wards. 1886 Graphic 10 Apr. 399/2 The manager himself is sometimes known as the ‘gorger’, and ‘daddy’ is the stage-manager. 1901 ‘M. Franklin’ My Brilliant Career xxi. 183 Joe Archer told me you ran into a clothes-line on race-night, and ever since then mother has kept up a daddy of a fuss about ours. Ibid. xxii. 194, I never felt such a daddy of a thirst on me before. 1941 Baker Dict. Austral. Slang 22 The daddy of them all, the most notable or expert, the largest. 1962 Woman 31 Mar. 18/3 He [an Australian] had had his share of knockbacks. Including a daddy of a one from Belle herself. 1969 W. Garner Us or Them War iv. 42 You graduate from taking little chances to taking big ones. This one was the daddy of 'em all. |
3. Used in Jazz slang as a form of address. Also more generally applied to an older person, and (U.S. slang), a lover. Cf. dad n.1 2; sugar daddy.
| 1926 C. Van Vechten Nigger Heaven 285 Daddy, husband or lover. 1927 Jrnl. Abnormal & Social Psychol. XXII. 15 Come on, daddy, let's have some fun. 1935 Wodehouse Blandings Castle xi. 244 A two-timing daddy. 1948 New Yorker 3 July 28 The bebop people have a language of their own. They call each other Pops, Daddy, and Dick. 1957 J. Kerouac On Road (1958) i. vii. 44 A waitress..slightly hung-up on a few sexual difficulties which..I think you can manage, you fine gone daddy you. 1960 Time & Tide 24 Dec. 1599/1 He calls his colleagues the detectives, ‘daddy’, his clothes he refers to as ‘threads’. 1962 Amer. Speech XXXVII. 34 This suggests to me that possibly the word daddy, meaning ‘a male lover’, may be a ‘pure’ Americanism. Ibid. 35 Daddy has a history beginning much earlier than 1935 as a term meaning simply ‘lover’ in Negro songs and blues. 1970 H. Waugh Finish me Off (1971) 133 He wasn't pimping for her... He's my daddy and he plays it for five other girls. |
Hence ˈdaddyism nonce-wd., the characteristics of an ‘old daddy’ (cf. sense b above); in U.S. boast of or respect for ancestry.
| 1871 K. Field in Harper's Bazaar Aug. (Farmer), ‘His grandfather was a distinguished man.’ ‘Was he?’ replied the man of Chicago. ‘That's of no account with us. There's less daddyism here than any part of the United States. What's he himself?’ 1892 Spectator 24 Dec. 927/2 If this great truth had broken upon Carlyle's biographer, how much daddyism had we been spared! |