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[607] ἄττα, a primitive word for father, no doubt formed from the early efforts of childish lips, like our ‘dada.’ It is found in this identical form in Latin, Skt. (attA in fem.), and Gothic; and slightly altered in Slavonic, Albanian, and Erse, i.e. in every main branch of the Indo-European family. ‘Attam pro reverentia seni cuilibet dicimus, quasi eum avi nomine appellemus,’ Epit. 12.So 17.561 and several times in Od., where it is always used by Telemachos to Eumaios.

The Iliad, edited, with apparatus criticus, prolegomena, notes, and appendices. Walter Leaf. London. Macmillan. 1900.

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