Baby-daddy

Slate puts waaayyy too much work into divining the origin of the expression "baby-daddy."

Writer Julia Turner suggests that the expression is an import from Jamaica. There are, apparently, terms in that country's Creole dialect which resemble phonetically the American-English "baby-daddy" and "baby-mama."

I hate to burst Slate's bubble, but this etymological expedition was a wasted trip. The origin of the expression in question is right around the corner. It might even be in your own house. It is nothing more or less than plain old American slang.

Typical usage of "baby-daddy" can be found easily on daytime talk shows, such as "Maury."

MAURY: Meet Shurleen. Shurleen says she can't believe her boyfriend, Clyde, is denying that he is the father her five-month old daughter Clydetta. Shurleen, you say there's no doubt that Clyde is Clydetta's father?

SHURLEEN: Murray, I'm 800 percent sure Clyde is my baby-daddy. Look, she got his eyelids. She got his kneecaps. Look at her sideburns. Clyde got sideburns just like that. And I wasn't with nobody else, so he got to be my baby-daddy.

MAURY: Before we bring Clyde out here, let's listen to what he had to say.

CLYDE (on tape): Shurleen ain't nuthin' but a [expletive deleted]. She know I ain't her baby-daddy. She such a straight-up freak, that could be anybody baby. Everybody on our block hit that. My cousin told me he hit that a dozen times. Shurleen, you ain't nuthin' but a nasty [expletive deleted]. When this DNA test proves I ain't your baby-daddy, you need to apologize, and then go find out who your real baby-daddy is!

All due respect to Slate's research team, they went a bit far afield on this one.

"Baby-daddy" is just a modified possessive. It is "baby's daddy" without the "s."

"He just my baby-daddy," translated into proper English is, "He's just my baby's daddy."

Nice effort, Slate, but... no.