ChatterBank11 mins ago
Mummy Daddy
Answers
No best answer has yet been selected by Viz. Once a best answer has been selected, it will be shown here.
For more on marking an answer as the "Best Answer", please visit our FAQ.'Mum' and 'Dad' have been used in English - in one form or another - since the 15th century. The 'mama/dada' is just a reduplication of a sound that babies make instinctively. In the case of 'mama', it is used in virtually all countries where the proper word for 'mother' begins with the 'm' sound, as in French, German etc.
The actual form 'dad' is far older than the form 'mum', since the former has been around for half a millennium and the latter has existed only since the early 1800s. (As 'mam', however, it's been around for as long as 'dad'.)
The earliest recorded use of 'mummy' dates from the end of the 18th century and 'daddy' from the end of the 15th.