Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Father. Used as a form of address for a priest in Italy, Spain, Portugal, and Latin America.
  • noun Informal A military chaplain.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A minister of any Christian denomination or a native priest.
  • noun Father: used with reference to priests in Spain, Italy, Mexico, southwestern United States, South America, etc.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A Christian priest or monk; used as a term of address for priests in some churches (especially Roman or Orthodox Catholic in Italy, Spain, Portugal, and Spanish America); -- also used in the American military.
  • noun In India (from the Portuguese), any Christian minister; also, a priest of the native region.
  • noun A chaplain in one of the military services.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A military clergyman.
  • noun A Roman Catholic or Anglican priest.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a chaplain in one of the military services
  • noun `Father' is a term of address for priests in some churches (especially the Roman Catholic Church or the Orthodox Catholic Church); `Padre' is frequently used in the military

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Spanish, Italian, or Portuguese, all from Latin pater, patr-, father; see pəter- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Italian, Spanish, Portuguese padre ("priest"), from Latin pater ("father"), from Proto-Indo-European *ph₂tḗr.

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