Forms: 1 stéupfædær, stéopfæder, 4 stifader, -dre, steffader; 4– step- (see FATHER sb.). [OE. stéopfæder (see STEP-) = OFris. stiapfeder (NFris. stjâpfader, sjapfar, WFris. stiepfader), MLG. stēfvadere, Du. stiefvader, OHG. stiuffater (MHG., mod.G. stiefvater), ON. stjúpfaðer (Sw. styffader, Da. stiffader). A man who has married one’s mother after one’s father’s death.
c. 825. Epinal Gloss., 1070. Vitricius, steupfaedaer.
c. 893. K. Ælfred, Oros., I. viii. 42. Adipsus [i.e., Oedipus] … æʓþer ofsloh ʓe … his steopfæder, ʓe his steopsunu.
13[?]. Sir Beues, 464. Beten ichaue me stifadre Wiþ me mace.
1387. Trevisa, Higden (Rolls), I. 93. Medus … folowed þe dedes of Iason þat was his owne stepfader.
c. 1489. Caxton, Sonnes of Aymon, iii. 83. It is no loue of a natureill fader, but it is rigoure of a stepfader.
1538. Elyot, Dict., Vitricus, a father in lawe or steppefather.
1631. Anchoran, Comenius’ Gate Tongues, 123. A stepfather, & stepmother, loue not very well their steppe sonnes, or steppe children.
1737. Gentl. Mag., VII. 30/2. I am not your own Child, but was adopted by one of your former Husbands; who … proved an excellent Step-Father to me.
1874. Stubbes, Const. Hist., II. xiv. 46. He was the stepfather of Arthur of Brittany.
b. transf. and fig.
c. 1325. Metr. Hom., 123. Hir [sc. the Church’s] steffader cal I the Fend, For igain hir es he unhende.
c. 1380. Wyclif, Sel. Wks., III. 335. Þis weiward steffadris of mennus soulis.
1628. Wither, Brit. Rememb., V. 128. Who but Stepfathers to their Poemes be.
1705. Hickeringill, Priest-cr., II. viii. 86. Kings, if they be Wise for themselves will be Nursing Fathers,… not Stepfathers.
1865. Kingsley, Herew., xv. ‘Dare we resist the Holy Father?’ ‘Holy step-father, you mean.’
1888. Bryce, Amer. Commw., liii. II. 327. [Washington] was commonly called by them ‘The stepfather of his country.’
¶ c. A father-in-law. (? A conscious misuse.)
a. 1625. Fletcher, Double Marr., IV. i. Pand. [to Juliana, his daughter-in-law] A word or two of a kind step-father I’ll have put in.
Hence Stepfatherly a.
1912. Nation, 23 March, 1012/1. His step-fatherly rule does not kill even his own officialism.
