Connection between 甫 and 父? The following sentence can be found in the first chapter of《清江壮歌》by Ma Shitu:

而且他的经济状况比谁都好，他和他的妻子在一个叫清江中学的教会学校里教书，收入本来不坏，更不同的是他还有一个“吃教饭”的哥哥，在本城天主堂里当神甫，和外国那个主教很要好，自然属于“高等华人”一流，收入是很可观的。

Here 神父 is written as 神甫.
Liang'an says:

神甫
[简] 神父

Which kind of implies that 甫 is the traditional of 父 and that 父 is the simplified form of 甫. But, that cannot be right, can it?
Does 父 have some sort of a connection to 甫, and vice verse, or is this some sort of anomaly?
This article posits 神甫 is a slightly derogatory term, first used by Qing officials, to address religious Fathers in their official communications to the Emperor. The author supports their argument by a) that 神父 is etymologically orthodox and traceable to the Ming dynasty, and b) that 神甫 is not a loyal translation to 'Father' (despite 甫 potentially being a title for a respectable man), which, in Catholic tradition, is a cordial address to a Priest (Lat. Sarcedos, Chin. 司鐸).

I believe the above argument is not baseless. There are many occasions where historical translations to Western entities are far from decent. Of course, that has more to do with 19th century history.



大不列顛 Great Britain
煲顛茶, 砵甸乍 Pottinger, first Governor of Hong Kong
爹核士 Davis, second Governor of Hong Kong
麥當奴 MacDonnell, sixth Governor of Hong Kong


In summary, 神甫 is a historical translation that has been outcompeted by the far more understandable translation 神父. Translative differences do not render 甫 and 父 etymologically connected.