Father

• Fr. (title given to priests)

See father.

Father

1. (Christianity) God, the father of Creation.
2. (Christianity) God the Father, who eternally begets the Son.
3. One's father.

   I will only do what Father asks.

4. (Wicca) One of the triune gods of the Horned God in Wicca, representing a man, younger than the elderly Sage and older than the boyish Master.
   • 2002, A. J. Drew, Wicca for Couples: Making Magick Together, page 89

     ...and our Lord as Master, Father, and Sage.

   • 2003, A. J. Drew, Patricia Telesco, God/Goddess: Exploring and Celebrating the Two Sides of Wiccan Deity, page 38:

     In respect to our Lord (God), these are the less known Master, Father, and Sage.

• (antonym(s) of “Wicca”): Mother

• Dad
• Daddy
• Mother

Father (plural Fathers)

1. (Christianity) A title given to priests.

   Father Thomas was a good priest.

   • 2006, David A. Badillo, “Powers of the Prelates: Urban Hierarchies Contrasted”, in Latinos and the New Immigrant Church, Baltimore, Md.: The Johns Hopkins University Press, →ISBN, page 73:

     Father Smith, the social action director of the archdiocese, and Father William Killian, executive editor of the archdiocesan weekly, went to Brownsville, joined the field workers in picketing, attended several rallies, and marched in an eight-mile “pilgrimage.” They were arrested by local authorities for trespassing on private property and sent back to San Antonio. When Fathers Smith and Killian returned to the valley in early 1967 in defiance of Lucey’s specific orders, Lucey removed Smith as social action director and demoted Killian and several other activist priests for violating protocol.

2. (Christianity) One of the chief ecclesiastical authorities of the first centuries after Christ.

   the Latin, Greek, or apostolic Fathers

3. A title given to the personification of a force of nature or abstract concept, such as Father Time or Father Frost.
4. (historical) A senator of Ancient Rome.
   • 1886, Victor Duruy, John Pentland Mahaffy, History of Rome, page 275:

     Claudius put a stop to these executions, and the Conscript Fathers, repenting, placed Gallienus among the divi , — which was equivalent to the maintenance of his acts.

   • 1886, Wilhelm Ihne, Early Rome, page 37:

     When Romulus had left the earth and had become a god, the Fathers met together and appointed intermediate kings from the senate, to reign in turn each for five days, in the place of the king, till a new king should be chosen.

   • 1890, Robert Franklin Pennell, Ancient Rome from the Earliest Times Down to 476 A.D., page 9:

     His duties were to command the army, to perform certain sacrifices (as high priest), and to preside over the assembly of the Fathers of the families, which was called the Senate, i. e. an assembly of old men (Senex).

• afther, fareth, hafter, trefah