‖ pater
[L. pater father.]
1. (ˈpætə(r)) = paternoster 1 (being the first word of the Lord's Prayer in Latin).
| c 1330 R. Brunne Chron. (1810) 341 Þat for him with deuocioun said pater & aue. 13.. E.E. Allit. P. A. 484 Neuer nauþer pater ne crede. 1632 Lithgow Trav. ix. 411 Pattering an abridged Pater. 1842 Barham Ingol. Leg. Ser. ii. Ingol. Penance, Let a mass be sung, and a pater be said. 1896 Dublin Rev. Apr. 278 Saying a pater perhaps in silence for St. Edythe's intercession. |
† 2. A priest, a monk: = father 6 b. Also in Comb. pater-guardian (see quot.). Obs.
| c 1630 Scot. Pasquil 7 A sprincle..held in hand of vested Pater. 1656 Blount Glossogr., Pater-guardian, a Father-guardian; a title given to the chief of the Franciscan Friers in their Monasteries. |
3. (ˈpeɪtə(r)) a. Familiarly used for father; chiefly in schoolboys' slang.
| 1728 Ramsay Monk & Miller's Wife 25 A youth sprung frae a gentle pater. 1880 M. E. Braddon Just as I am xiv, You are not afraid of your pater being caught by her elderly wiles. 1893 F. F. Moore Gray Eye or So II. 202 Don't let us get into a sentimental strain, pater. 1900 G. Swift Somerley 126 The pater will say I'm a fool, the mater'll say the girl isn't good enough for me. |
b. spec. Anthropol. The legal father.
| 1949, etc. [see genitor2 b]. 1951 E. E. Evans-Pritchard Kinship & Marriage among Nuer 113 The children clearly regard themselves as members of a legal family to which the brother of their pater does not belong, although he is their foster-father, and may also be their genitor. 1955 M. Gluckman Custom & Conflict in Afr. iii. 71 In these institutions physiological paternity is distinguished from social fatherhood—as anthropologists put it, the pater need not be the genitor. |