When did the word "Dad" come into general use to address someone's father?I?

Question

I am reading a book about the "old west" with horses and chamber pots being the only clues to its time period. I think in those days, a man was addresses as "papa" or "father" and that the use of the word "dad" seems out of the period. My mother who would be 82 called her parents "Mama and Papa"

Answer 1

It is derived from a baby's cry, "Dada".

Answer 2

dad

recorded from 1500, but probably much older, from child's speech, nearly universal and probably prehistoric (cf. Welsh tad, Ir. daid, Czech, L., Gk. tata, Lith. tete, Skt. tatah all of the same meaning). Daddylonglegs is from 1814; daddy-o is first recorded 1949, from bop talk.

[Origin: 1490–1500; prob. orig. nursery word]

Answer 3

Evolution. It was "father", then "dada", then "dad".

Answer 4

thats a very good question