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taică

dad, father (informal/regional) /ˈta.i.kə/

noun#4094 most common

Also: term an older man uses to address a younger man affectionately, roughly 'my boy', term a younger person uses to address a respected old man, roughly 'old man' or 'sir'

Example sentences

Taică, ajută-mă puțin!
Dad, help me a little!
Taică-meu este șofer de camion.
My dad is a truck driver.
Unde e taică-tău acum?
Where is your dad now?
Taică-su i-a promis un cadou de ziua lui.
His dad promised him a gift for his birthday.
Bătrânul l-a bătut ușor pe umăr și i-a spus: «Ai grijă, taică, drumurile astea sunt periculoase noaptea.»
The old man patted him gently on the shoulder and said: 'Be careful, my boy, these roads are dangerous at night.'
Tăicuța, ajuns la adânci bătrânețe, își amintea cu duioșie de anii tinereții petrecuți la munte.
Dear old dad, having reached a ripe old age, remembered fondly the years of his youth spent in the mountains.

Declension

CaseSingularPlural
Nominativetaicătăici
Genitivetăiciităicilor
Accusativetaicătăici
Vocativetaicătăicilor

Word family

tatăfathertăticdaddy
tăicuțădear old dad (diminutive)
taică-suhis dad (colloquial)
tătucdad, old man (regional)

Etymology

Taică is a familiar, mostly rural variant of tată (father), used above all in fixed colloquial phrases with an enclitic pronoun, such as taică-su ('his dad') and taică-meu ('my dad'). It belongs to a small class of Romanian masculine nouns that end in -ă, like tată and popă, formed on the child-language root ta-. That root appears as a 'nursery word' for father across many unrelated language families, since it echoes an early babbling sound rather than a single inherited word.

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