père

(pĕr)

1. Used after a man's surname to distinguish a father from a son: Dumas père primarily wrote novels, while dramas occupied Dumas fils.

2. Père Roman Catholic Church Used as a title for a priest in a French-speaking area.

[French, from Old French pedre, from Latin pater; see pəter- in Indo-European roots.]

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

père

(pɛr; English pɛə)

an addition to a French surname to specify the father rather than the son of the same name: Dumas père. Compare fils¹

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

père

(pɛr; Eng. pɛər)

n., pl. pères (per; Eng. pârz). French.

father: often used after a name with the meaning of Sr., as in Dumas père. Compare fils.

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References in classic literature

He was admitted ; when he made an offer of his hand, with much suavity, together with his “amis beeg and leet’, his père, his mere and his sucreboosh.” Elizabeth might, possibly, have previously entered into some embarrassing and binding engagements with Oliver, for she declined the tender of all, in terms as polite, though perhaps a little more decided, than those in which they were made.

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