Ntate, noun

Origin:
Sotho
Especially among Sotho-speakers: father. Cf. baba noun2.
1. A respectful mode of address to an older man.
1948 E. Rosenthal Afr. Switzerland 198Ntate,’ observed the official. ‘I remember you came last month for a stamp.’
1974 Drum 22 Aug. 4‘Ntate, I’ve got the letter to the superintendent typed. Can you sign it, please?’ They all call him father.
c1976 H. Flather Thaba Rau 215Leach responded with a smile and the highest term of respect that could be accorded an older Basuto. ‘Ntate’, he said. ‘It is good to be back’.
1982 [see cheese-kop adjective].
2. Used as a respectful title, either standing alone or before a name.
1974 M. Mutloatse in S. Gray On Edge of World 111And over there Ntate Moruti was praying unnoticed: ‘Modimo, forgive them, for they know not...
1980 C. Nkosi in M. Mutloatse Forced Landing 13Eviction from home resulting from ntate’s chronic unemployment and inability to pay the hovel rent.
1980 M. Mutloatse Forced Landing 151Each time she left..Ma-Nthato would innocently but deliberately lie that she was visiting Ntate — the children’s father — at his place of employment.
1985 S. Sello in Drum June 56Ntate Nef is gradually becoming either a hero or a villain, depending on one’s standpoint.
1987 Learn & Teach No.5, 29‘Our parents and grandparents sold their cattle to buy the land at Mogopa in 1912,’ said Ntate Ephraim Pooe.
1990 Tribute Apr. 28She would inquire and be told. ‘Danny said he would be late today.’ ‘Danny?’ she wondered, not ‘Ntate?’
1993 City Press 12 Dec. 15‘It was always Frank’s wish to be laid to rest in the land of his birth, and with the generous help of Ntate and Mme’ — as she called the Fines — ‘his wish became reality.’
3. As a common noun: an older man.
1975 M. Mutloatse in Bolt No.12, 17A carelessly-bearded ntate of about 40 going on for 60 and pretending to be 30 shook the commuters with a hail of laughter.
father.
A respectful mode of address to an older man.
Used as a respectful title, either standing alone or before a name.
an older man.
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19481993