pop

   ‘Pop, I have got you a husband,’ is a quotation given by the Oxford English Dictionary. It is taken from an eighteenth-century novel and is supported by many similar exam ples to show that ‘pop’ was once used as a term of endearment for a girl or woman.

   In its full form it would have been ‘poppet’ or ‘poplet’. Such usage continued until the end of the nineteenth century, though well before then ‘pop’ was being used in the USA as an abbreviation for ‘poppa’, itself a variant of ‘papa’.

   The main modern use would be by children to their father, especially in America. The word is also occasionally used on both sides of the Atlantic to address a considerably older man whose social standing does not inspire more respect.

   In at least one family known to the author, ‘pop’ is used for the grandfather where ‘dad’ is used to the father. An Australian correspondent remarks that the word is used there ‘by cheeky boys to strange men’. Examples of usage to a father occur in e.g. Rabbit Redux, by John Updike, and The Business of Loving, by Godfrey Smith.