[OE. fósterfæder, f. FOSTER sb.1 (also féster-: cf. related forms under FOSTER sb.2 and v.). Cf. ON. fóstrfaðir.] a. One who performs the duty of a father to another’s child. b. The husband of a nurse (esp. in Ireland and the Highlands).
a. 800. Corpus Gloss., 140. Altor, fostorfaeder.
a. 1000. Martyrol. (Cockayne), 62. He is ure festerfæder on Criste.
c. 1200. Ormin, 8855.
| & till hiss fosterrfuderr ec | |
| He wass buhsumm & milde. |
c. 1314. Guy Warw. (A.), 169.
| Gij a forster fader hadde | |
| That him lerd and him radde. |
1548. Udall, etc., Erasm. Par. Luke ii. 37 a. The chylde also beeyng voder the guydyng of his mother, and his fosterfather, euen than as younge as he was, accustomed himselfe to deuout seruing of god.
1622. Bacon, Hen. VII., Mor. & Hist. Wks. (Bohn), 342. The duke of Britain having been an host, and a kind of parent or foster-father to the king, in his tenderness of age and weakness of fortune.
1711. Addison, Spect., No. 123, ¶ 5. Whilst Florio lived at the House of his Foster-father he was always an acceptable Guest in the Family of Eudoxus.
1848. Dickens, Dombey, ii. He motioned his child’s foster-father to the door, who departed by no means unwillingly.
fig. 1561. T. Norton, Calvin’s Inst., IV. 161. Esay, when he promiseth that kinges shalbe fosterfathers of ye Chirch.
a. 1652. J. Smith, Sel. Disc., iii. 51. Herein all the Epicureans (who are not the true, but foster-fathers of that Natural Philosophy they brag of, and which indeed Democritus was the first Author of) doe miserably blunder themselves.
