granddaddyn.
/ˈɡrandadi/, U.S. /ˈɡrænˌdædi/ 1.
a. = grandad n. Also figurative. Now chiefly U.S. and colloquial.
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society > society and the community > kinship or relationship > kinsman or relation > grandparent > [noun] > grandfather
mother-fathereOE
eldfatherOE
grandsirec1300
aiela1325
belsirea1325
grandfather1424
belfatherc1440
goodsire?c1450
fore-grandsire1513
gutcher1523
granfer1564
granddaddy1648
grandpapa1680
grandada1699
grandad1764
grandpa?1785
grandpappy1857
grandpop1860
abuelo1876
dada1888
gramp1890
grampy1904
lolo1934
gramps1935
zayde1946
opa1948
opi1988
1648 G. Wharton Vindic. Mercurius Elencticus 9 Was't the instigation, Of thy grand Daddy Pluto caus'd thy passion.
1769 F. Burney Early Jrnls. & Lett. (1988) I. 59 My Grand daddy is here to night, to the very great satisfaction of us all.
1803 Boston Weekly Mag. 9 Apr. 100/2 On inquiring the cause of his tears, he said, grandaddy was sick in bed, and he was afraid he would die.
1811 Morning Post 14 May I sought with public spirit warm, A full and radical Reform; And now I'm old enough to be Reform's Grand Daddy, as you see.
1873 Dublin Univ. Mag. Sept. 295/2 Don't you think if I were to risk it and go with you to the old place, that we might persuade grand-daddy and the others to leave and go with us after all?
1917 Rotarian Mar. 233/1 Rotarian Val B. Mintun of Kansas City, Mo., is a grand-daddy.
1972 T. C. Bambara Gorilla, my Love 16 Like the time Uncle Clayton went in the army and come back with only one leg and Granddaddy say something stupid about that's life.
2004 Birmingham (Alabama) News (Nexis) 19 Aug. I still have my granddaddy's old hog rifle.
b. colloquial. The largest, most notable, or original example or instance of a particular thing. Cf. father n. Phrases 8, grandfather n. 1b.
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the mind > goodness and badness > quality of being good > quality of being the best > [phrase]
granddaddy1864
ten out of ten1981
1864 W. H. Thomes Gold Hunters' Adventures lx. 411 I found the granddaddy of lumps... It's a lump as big as my head I've found.
1918 I. Allen Money-maker xvii. 206 I've got the real old granddaddy of all chances to get rich.
1956 Amer. Speech 31 255 This [sc. a spoonerism by a radio announcer] is known as the ‘grandaddy’ of all bloopers.
1961 M. Beadle These Ruins are Inhabited (1963) xi. 156 The granddaddy of all electrical storms dumped a cloudburst.
2009 New Yorker 13 Apr. 85/1 ‘American Graffiti’ (1973), the grand-daddy of the summer-before-college movie genre.
2. Chiefly U.S. = granddaddy-long-legs n. at Compounds.
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the world > animals > invertebrates > phylum Arthropoda > class Arachnida > [noun] > division Pseudoarachnida > order Opiliones > family Phalangidae or genus Phalangium > member of
shepherd1608
carter spider1665
shepherd spider1665
spider1665
shepherd's spider1688
father-long-legs1746
granddaddy1808
daddy-long-legs1818
harvestman1830
grandfather-long-legs1833
phalangian1835
phalangidan1835
harvest-spider1852
granddaddy-long-legs1858
phalangid1869
phalange1876
opilionid1900
1808 A. Wilson Let. 28 Aug. in Poems & Lit. Prose (1876) I. Pref. p. vi A species of Acaris, vulgarly called Long Legs, Grandady, [etc.].
1887 Current 18 June 831/2 Bugs and earwigs! When I want my dinner seasoned with spiders and grand-daddies, I can eat it in the garden.
1921 F. Bralliar Knowing Insects through Stories (ed. 4) vi. ii. 235 To me as a child all ‘grandaddies’ looked alike, but there are several kinds.
2010 L. Robertson Fatal Circle 356 ‘Saw myself on TV. Looked like a stump full of granddaddies.’ She'd always compared someone's messy hair to a spider's nest.
Compounds
granddaddy-long-legs n. chiefly U.S. an arthropod with long thin legs; esp. a harvestman (order Opiliones).Cf. daddy-long-legs n. 1, grandfather-long-legs n. at grandfather n. Compounds 2.
ΘΚΠ
the world > animals > invertebrates > phylum Arthropoda > class Arachnida > [noun] > division Pseudoarachnida > order Opiliones > family Phalangidae or genus Phalangium > member of
shepherd1608
carter spider1665
shepherd spider1665
spider1665
shepherd's spider1688
father-long-legs1746
granddaddy1808
daddy-long-legs1818
harvestman1830
grandfather-long-legs1833
phalangian1835
phalangidan1835
harvest-spider1852
granddaddy-long-legs1858
phalangid1869
phalange1876
opilionid1900
the world > animals > invertebrates > phylum Arthropoda > class Insecta > order Diptera or flies > [noun] > suborder Nematocera > family Tipulidae > member of (crane-fly)
crane-fly1658
harry-long-legs1676
tailor1682
long legs1721
father-long-legs1742
Tipula1752
tommy-long-legs1800
Tom Tailor1800
meadow crane fly1813
jenny-spinner1817
daddy-long-legs1829
spinner-fly1848
granddaddy-long-legs1858
tipulid1893
1858 W. H. English Addr. before Washington & Orange Agric. Soc. 7/2 What shrieks at the sight of a spider, or a granddaddy-long-legs!
1872 C. V. Riley Rep. Noxious Insects 17 These animals are popularly called ‘Grand-Daddy-Long-Legs’ in this country, but are also known as ‘Harvest men’ and ‘Grandfather-Gray-Beards’.
1937 T. Turner in J. F. Dobie & M. C. Boatright Straight Texas 175 If the cows are lost, find a grand-daddy-long-legs and say to him, ‘Grand-daddy, grand-daddy, where are the cows?’
2008 Aiken (S. Carolina) Standard (Nexis) 1 Nov. We found a granddaddy long legs, a crawfish, tadpole, crickets, grasshoppers, [etc.].
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2015; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1648