Papas

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A term for male parents or fathers; a type of potato dish common in South American cuisine; an informal or affectionate way to refer to a grandfather
2. Referring to biological or adoptive male guardians; a traditional food item made from boiled or mashed potatoes, especially linked to Andean culture; a colloquial expression used to denote an elderly male relative, typically a granddad
3. Used as a familiar name for dads or paternal figures; a culinary staple involving potatoes prepared in various styles in Latin American countries; an endearing nickname for a senior male family member, usually a grandfather

Etymology: "Papas" is simply the plural of "papa," so the word's story is really the story of "papa." That term is probably a reduplicated form of a baby's early attempts at speech, the repeated "pa-pa" sounds that infants make while learning to vocalise. Such babble-based words recur across many languages, which is part of why the word is so widespread. The same sound appears in Ancient Greek "páppas," meaning "papa" or "daddy," and the Greek form is an important point of comparison for the family of words. Whether the Greek and the English-language forms share a common origin in babble or in one another is something the evidence does not settle, so the safest reading is that a similar infant sound produced similar words in different places. In Spanish-speaking and other Latin American usage, "papas" carries the plural sense of potatoes, but that is a separate development in its own right. The affectionate family sense of "papas" for dads and grandfathers comes from the same baby-speech root as "papa."

Synonyms: potatoes, spuds, tubers