By Paula LaRocque, KERA 90.1 Commentator
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/kera/local-kera-516499.mp3
Dallas, TX –
We celebrate Father's Day for the 95th year this month, yet this tribute became an official holiday only 40 years ago, when Lyndon Johnson signed a proclamation declaring the third Sunday in June Father's Day. Even later, in 1972, Richard Nixon signed a law making Father's Day a permanent observance.
The first Father's Day, however, was celebrated in 1910 in Spokane, Washington. The tribute was the idea of Sonora Dodd, whose father, William Smart, had been widowed and had raised his six young children alone. As an adult, Sonora Dodd realized how selfless her father had been, and she wanted to thank him and all such fathers.
She chose June for the first Father's Day because it was her father's birth month.
In protecting and nurturing his family, William Smart not only did what good fathers do, but he also did what the word "father" means.
"Father" has been an English word for as long as there has been an English language and its root predates English by untold centuries. How do we know? Because it came from the Indo-European tongue, a major taproot for English. The word's form and pronunciation changed as Indo-European branched into different languages, but its origin and meaning remained.
Simply stated, father descends from the Indo-European pater, which incorporates the ancient root PA, meaning to feed and protect. From this same source came various forms the Greek and Latin pater, the Sanskrit pitar, the Old English faeder, the Germanic fader, the English father. The Indo-European pater became father because a consonant shift in the Germanic branch changed P to F, and T to TH. Thus, pater became father.
So such renderings of father as fater, fader or fadre share the same root and meaning as the Latin pater, Spanish padre, Greek pappas, and French pere. And whether transcribed as P or F, that ancient PA root denoted food or foodgiver in languages that shared Indo-European roots. And over time, such words extended logically to mean protector, teacher, counselor, and the like.
From this root also came nurture-related words such as the Germanic food, fodder and forage, and the Greek foster. In Latin, the PA root generated panis, meaning food; pascere, to feed; panarium, breadbasket; and pasture. Pan, panne and pain mean bread in different languages. The English have pasties, the Americans pastries, and the French pattisseries. We cook in pans, and we keep food in the English pantry, the French paneterie, the Latin paneteria.
A repast is a meal, and antipasto is what we eat before the meal. Pamper originally meant to feed too much.
Patriarch, paternal, patron, and pastor also derive from this root and denote fatherly benefactors.
So: Happy Father's Day to all you pa's and pops and papas who feed your brood not just their daily bread, but food for heart and mind as well. You are a blessing in what you do and in what you teach, as basic and indispensable to our culture as your name is to our language. As the proverb declares: "One father is more than a hundred schoolmasters."
Paula LaRocque is a former writing coach and editor for the Dallas Morning News and the author of The Book on Writing: The Ultimate Guide to Writing Well.
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