dad-da

Updated: June 1, 2025

The little boy then being asked whether he had no daddy, at first shook his head, and would say nothing; but being pressed he suddenly seemed to remember something, and said he, "Dad-da ill man; run away and left poor mum-ma." She who heard this winced. It was as new to her as to Clement. Some interfering foolish woman had gone and said this to the boy, and now out it came in Gerard's very face.

Charles Reade - The Cloister and the Hearth