zaddy

An alteration of daddy, popularized by American rapper Ty Dolla Sign's 2016 song by this name. The origin of the z- is in debate; it generally tends to refer to the phrase “je ne sais quoa” mistakenly using the “z” sound though there is no Z in the spelling. It may also represent the idea of being "the ultimate daddy" as z is the last letter of the alphabet, or it may have been formed by assibilation of the /d/ phoneme preceding /æ/ in the first syllable noted in Hispanic populations of New York and Miami, the latter being the origin of the girl subject of Ty's song.^[1]

• IPA^(key): /ˈzædi/
• Rhymes: -ædi

• Audio (US):

  (file)

zaddy (plural zaddies)

1. (originally African-American Vernacular, slang) A handsome, fashionable man, especially an older man.
   • 2016, “Zaddy”, in Campaign, performed by Ty Dolla $ign:

     She keep on callin' me zaddy, that lil' baby got a fatty

   • 2023 March 18, Jo Ellison, “Have you got zaddy issues?”, in FT Weekend, page 21:

     As someone who can shoot on target, keep watch while you sleep and look smoking in a leather jacket or a sparkly, silver lurex sweater, [Pedro Pascal is] the poster boy for what the zaddy's all about.

   • 2024 August 12, May Darmon, “The Sci-Fi Rollerblades” (2:45 from the start), in Solar Opposites‎^[1], season 5, episode 6, spoken by Terry (Thomas Middleditch):

     “Wait a minute, Bradd said his dad could beat up a dad in this family. How do we know he wasn't talking about me? I'm a dad too.” [Korvo and replicants laugh] [laughter continues] “Okay, you're right. I'm more of a zaddy than a dad.” “It's true. That was good though, Terry. I really needed that. You've energized me for an ass-kicking. Well, off to hurt a stranger.”