fatherly.
Characteristic of what is considered the ideal behaviour pertaining to fatherhood.
Meaning & usage
Characteristic of what is considered the ideal behaviour pertaining to fatherhood.
Befitting of a father; protective, paternal.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English faderly, from Old English fæderlīċ (“fatherly, paternal”), from Proto-West Germanic *faderlīk, from Proto-Germanic *fadurlīkaz (“fatherly, paternal”), equivalent to father + -ly. Cognate with West Frisian faderlik (“fatherly”), Dutch vaderlijk (“fatherly”), German väterlich (“fatherly”), Danish faderlig (“fatherly”), Swedish faderlig (“fatherly”), Icelandic föðurlegur (“fatherly”) . Doublet of fatherlike.
In a way pertaining to, befitting, or of a father.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English faderly, fadirly, from Old English fæderlīċe (“in a fatherly way, as a father”), equivalent to father + -ly.
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.