different between fatherly vs unfatherly

English

Etymology

From Middle English faderly, from Old English fæderl?? (“fatherly, paternal”), from Proto-Germanic *fadurl?kaz (“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.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?f??ð?li/
• (US) IPA^(key): /?f?ð?li/

Adjective

fatherly (comparative more fatherly, superlative most fatherly)

1. Characteristic of what is considered the ideal behaviour pertaining to fatherhood.

   fatherly advice

2. Characteristic of fathers, paternal.

Derived terms

• fatherliness
• unfatherly

Translations

Anagrams

• Flaherty

English

Etymology

From un- +? fatherly.

Adjective

unfatherly (comparative more unfatherly, superlative most unfatherly)

1. Not fatherly; unpaternal.
   • 1602, Anonymous, A Pleasant Conceited Comedy, Wherein is shewed how a man may chuse a good wife from a bad, London: Mathew Lawe, Act I, Scene 2,^[1]

     Shall we come thus far, and in such post haste,

     And have our children here, and both within,

     And not behold them e’er our back-return?

     It were unfriendly, and unfatherly.

   • 1811, Jane Austen, Sense and Sensibility, Chapter 36,^[2]

     Mr. Palmer maintained the common, but unfatherly opinion among his sex, of all infants being alike; and though she could plainly perceive, at different times, the most striking resemblance between this baby and every one of his relations on both sides, there was no convincing his father of it […]

   • 1837, Charles Dickens, The Pickwick Papers, Chapter 56,^[3]

     At first, Mr. Weller received with wry faces a proposition involving the marriage of anybody in whom he took an interest; but, as Mr. Pickwick argued the point with him, and laid great stress on the fact that Mary was not a widow, he gradually became more tractable. Mr. Pickwick had great influence over him, and he had been much struck with Mary’s appearance; having, in fact, bestowed several very unfatherly winks upon her, already.

Derived terms

• unfatherliness

Translations