Etymology: The word “daddy” has been on an adventure ever since it moved beyond the purely paternal in the 1920s. Starting, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, as a word “most commonly used in children’s language,” “daddy” has become a term of endearment when used between adults in non-familial or sexually intimate relationships. These relationships tend to be ones with potent power dynamics, commonly involving submission to masculine authority.

The internet has toyed with the term and subverted it. Twitter is awash with people addressing the likes of Barack Obama, Drake and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson as “daddy.” Bernie Sanders is also not immune.

What constitutes a “daddy” is mercurial. Daddies don’t have to be old. According to Mike Albo writing in The Cut, in the gay community, where “daddy” reportedly took off as part of the leather subculture, it has more to do with aesthetics: “facial hair and meat on his bones.” Look to spring chicken Zayn Malik, commonly referred to as “daddy,” for evidence—as well as the character of Dominga “Daddy” Duarte in Orange Is the New Black for proof that gender isn’t a prerequisite, either.

For Eve Peyser, writing in New York magazine: “What differentiates today’s iteration of daddy [as used by heterosexual millennial women] from past conceptions is we’re having way more fun with it.”

Meaning: Linguists hold that baby talk can be a valuable—if cloying—form of couples bonding. According to Frank Nuessel, interviewed by Vice, baby talk “is about providing adults with a space to express themselves, free of the stultifying conventions of normal human conversation.” Calling someone you are sexually attracted to “daddy” certainly falls outside the usual patter.

When “daddy” is specifically used to denote female submission to masculinity, the gender politics are knotty, but Peyser writes that using “daddy” can be empowering. By claiming it as their own women, are, she says, gently mocking “the patriarchal structures we’re playing into.” See the “daddy” tweets sometimes sent to the pope for reference.