Stepdads

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A male parent who is married to one's biological parent but is not one's direct father
2. A man in a parental role who assumes the responsibilities and duties of a father toward a child from a previous relationship
3. An individual who plays a fatherly role in the life of a child, typically in a blended family arrangement where he is not the child's biological father

Etymology: "Stepdads" is simply the plural of "stepdad," so the story is really the story of its two parts. The "dad" is the familiar nursery word for father, and the "step-" is the older element that gives the compound its meaning of a relation by marriage rather than by birth. That prefix descends from Old English "stēop," meaning bereaved or orphaned, a sense that survives in the idea of a child who has lost a parent and gained a new one through a remarriage. Over the centuries "step-" became a productive prefix, forming words such as stepmother, stepson and stepchild, all describing relationships created by a parent's remarriage. "Dad" is a much later addition to the family of words, a childish form of "father" that became common in English in the modern period, so the compound is a comparatively recent creation.

Synonyms: stepfathers, blended fathers, co-parents, fathers-in-law, guardians