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FATHER

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Originally appearing in Volume V10, Page 200 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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FATHER , the begetter of a See also:

child, the male See also:parent. The word is See also:common to See also:Teutonic See also:languages, and, like the other words for See also:close See also:family relationship, See also:mother, See also:brother, son, See also:sister, daughter, appears in most Indo - See also:European languages. The 0. Eng. See also:form is feeder, and it appears in Ger. Vater, Dutch vader, Gr. 1raTitp, See also:Lat. See also:pater, whence Romanic Fr. See also:pen, Span. padre, &c. The word is used of male ancestors more remote than the actual male parent, and of ancestors in See also:general. It is applied to See also:God, as the Father of Jesus See also:Christ, and as the Creator of the See also:world, and is thus the orthodox See also:term for the First See also:Person of the Trinity. Of the transferred uses of the word many have religious reference; thus it is used of the See also:Christian writers, usually confined to those of the first five centuries, the Fathers of the See also:Church (see below), of whom those who flourished at the end of, or just after the See also:age of, the apostles are known as the Apostolic Fathers. One who stands as a spiritual parent to another is his " father," e.g. god-father, or in the See also:title of bishops or archbishops, Right or Most See also:Reverend Father in God. The See also:pope is, in the See also:Roman Church, the See also:Holy Father. In the Roman Church, father is strictly applied to a " See also:regular," a member of one of the religious orders, and so always in See also:Europe, in See also:English usage, often applied to a See also:confessor, whether regular or See also:secular, and to any Roman See also:priest, and sometimes used of sub-members of a religious society or fraten.ity in the English Church.

Of transferred uses, other than religious, may be mentioned the application to the first founders of an institution, constitution, See also:

epoch, &c. Thus the earliest settlers of See also:North See also:America are the See also:Pilgrim Fathers, and the framers of the See also:United States constitution are the Fathers of the Constitution. In See also:ancient See also:Rome the members of the See also:senate are the Patres conscripli, the " Conscript fathers." The See also:senior member or See also:doyen of a society is often called the father. Thus the member of the English See also:House of See also:Commons, and similarly, of the House of Representatives in the United States, America, who has sat for the longest See also:period uninterruptedly, is the Father of the House.

End of Article: FATHER

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