Talk:grandfather

How about "pap-paw"? My children like most have 2 sets of grandparents. My son calls my wife's parents "Grandma" and "Grandpa". My son calls my parents "Pap-paw" and "Mam-maw". Now popularly, in the mid-west, "Pappa" means father and "Mamma" mean mother but how would a person spell "Pap-paw" or "Mam-maw"? Now I am spelling it the way I am saying it but it doesn't look right. My mother swears that it should be Pappa (for Pap-paw) - but according to every online dictionary "Pappa" is slang for Father not Grandfather. Does anyone have any insight into this grandfather slang spelling query?


 * I believe the usual spelling if these two words is Mamaw and Papaw (usually capitalized because they are used for two specific people, but not used generically the way grandmother or grandfather are). —Stephen 04:19, 25 November 2007 (UTC)

I believe the first entry is right. Pap-Paw and Mam-Maw are correct! I grew up in deep East Texas in the town of Marshall where Lady Bird Johnson, Bill Moyer, Y. A. Tittle and George Foreman all hail from. One might say it is more west Louisiana than East Texas. Since my paternal grandparents were called Mam-Maw and Pap-Paw, I too am very curious about the names "Mam-Maw" and "Pap-Paw" and my current research and hypothesis is that these hail from Cajun country. They seem to be adapted from Grand Pere, the French word for Grandfather. My grandmother, we called "Mam-Maw" was from Alexandria, LA (the sort of norther boundary of Cajun country), and her 2nd husband, who was not our blood relation, we called "Pap-Paw". I think she designated that name to him. Pap-Paw was nearer and dearer to me than any blood relative grandfather could be, and I have therefore taken that name for my first grandson to call me carrying on that tradition of my Pap-Paw.


 * I agree that a derivation from Cajun French looks most plausible, compare maman and papa (but not grand-père). --Florian Blaschke (talk) 01:49, 16 October 2014 (UTC)

--- Couldn't the definition of the verb be made clearer? "Exempt ... conditions from ... requirements"? The entry exempt doesn't seem to include any suitable definition.82.131.110.69 06:34, 30 October 2008 (UTC)
 * dictionary.com had it clearer, I think. It said that it means exempting "something or someone", but not "conditions"; it did lack the "pre-existing" part, though.82.131.110.69 06:39, 30 October 2008 (UTC)

--- Pap-Paw and Mam-Maw are correct. However these terms are regional and associated especially with the deep South, and the Civil War. Like Pappy and Mammy. Depending on your location, they can be deemed by some as originating with a lifestyle which included slavery, bigotry, and intolerance.

Is "grandsire" another valid synonym?

etym2-gudex
http://www.theguardian.com/science/2015/jul/15/pluto-planet-status-debate-dwarf