wikipedia|dab=baba
English

Etymology
As one of the first utterances many babies are able to say, term|baba (like term|mama, term|papa, and term|dada) has come to be used in many languages as a term for various family members:
father: Chinese, Hindi, Bangla, Persian, Swahili, ...
grandmother: many Slavic language (such as Russian and Polish), Yiddish, Japanese, ...
baby: Afrikaans, ...
These terms often continue to be used by English speakers whose families came from one of these cultures. In some cases, they may become more widely used in localities that have been heavily influenced by an immigrant community. Some senses were extensions of one of these family terms in the original languages ("old woman" from "grandmother", "holy man" from "father"). The "cake" sense comes through F. from Pl. term|baba||old woman|langpl. The Middle Eastern word term|baba (as in term|Ali Baba) is rather a term of endearment, and is ultimately derived from Pers. term|scFAchar|بابا|trb�b�||father|langfa (from OP. term|p�pa|langpeo; as opposed to the Arabic words term|scARchar|اب�|tr�ábu|langar and term|scARchar|أب|tr�ab|langar, as well as the Turkish word term|ata|langtr; see also w:Papak|Papak) , and is linguistically related to the common European word term|papa and the word term|pope, having the same w:Indo-European languages|Indo-European origin.

Noun
en-noun

1. A kind of sponge cake soaked in rum-flavoured syrup.
2. A grandmother.

#*1993, Karen Dubinsky, Improper Advances: Rape and Heterosexual Conflict in Ontario, 1880-1929, University of Chicago Press
#*:My baba, Ksenia Dubinsky, tells me that my education makes her proud.
#*2001, Brattleboro Remembers, edited by the Brattleboro [Vermont] Historical Society, Arcadia Publishing
#*:I walked first for my grandmother, and my mother was sorry she had missed my first steps. My Baba was so proud, my mother later told me.
#*2004: A Woman's Europe: True Stories, edited by MaryBeth? Bond
#*:As we made eye contact, I slowly began to wonder if she was Baba. I did not know my grandmother though I'd spoken with her several times on the telephone;

1. An old woman, especially a traditional old woman from an eastern European culture.

#*1914, Russell Sage Foundation, Wage-earning Pittsburgh
#*:Only two women, typical "babas" (peasant women) in the house from which I got my quilt and bedcloth, could be coaxed to pose;
#*1986, Janice Kulyk Keefer, The Paris-Napoli Express
#*:Laura hadn't known that anyone's mother could look like that, like the babas you sometimes saw downtown, bandaged in kerchiefs and aprons, sitting toothless in stockinged feet on small verandahs, peeling potatoes or beets or just shaking their heads and grimacing.
#*2003, Food Tourism Around The World: Development, Management and Markets, edited by Colin Michael Hall and Liz Sharples
#*:According to some, new volunteers are becoming more difficult to recruit and there are dark suggestions that 'money is being made on the backs of the babas', the dedicated, but ageing ladies who still spend countless hours of their time preparing foodstuffs for the occasion.

1. A father

#*1849, Edward Bulwer Lytton, The Caxtons
#*:The first time I signed my exercise I wrote "Pisistratus Caxton" in my best round-hand. "And dey call your baba a scholar!" said the Doctor, contemptuously.
#*1998, Mulan (movie)
#*:"The greatest gift and honor is having you for a daughter. I've missed you so." "I've missed you too, baba."
#*2002, Bend It Like Beckham (movie)
#*:Okay. Okay. Fine, baba. Let's just do it before something else goes wrong.
#*2003, House of Sand and Fog (movie)
#*:"Do not be disrespectful, son. Look at me." "Baba, were you a Savaki?"

1. context|Hinduism, Islam, Sikhism A holy man, a spiritual leader

#*1995, Hugh J.M. Johnston and Tara Singh Bains, The Four Quarters of the Night: The Life-Journey of an Emigrant Sikh
#*:While I was in Port Alberni, three babas came to Canada to raise money ...
#*2004, Andrew Robinson, Satyajit Ray: The Inner Eye: The Biography of a Master Film-Maker
#*:But according to Ray, 'all the babas my uncle knew were genuine. None of them was exposed. They were fairly humble people, not show-offs like the Maharishi ...
#*2006, Suraiya Faroqhi, Subjects Of The Sultan: Culture And Daily Life In The Ottoman Empire
#*:Most babas had little contact with written culture and are not therefore named in books and treatises.

1. A baby, child

#*1876, Sir George Otto Trevelyan, The Life and Letters of Lord Macaulay
#*:That is to say, if I do not take care, I shall go on calling my darling 'Baba' till she is as old as her mamma, and has a dozen Babas of her own.
#*1904, Rudyard Kipling, Traffics and Discoveries
#*:For my child is dead--my baba is dead!

1. In baby talk, often used for a variety of words beginning with "b", such as "bottle" or "blanket"

#*2004, House (TV, episode 1.14)
#*:Oh, it's storytime! Let me get my baba.

Related terms
baba au rhum
rhumbaba, rum baba
baba ganoush

Afrikaans

Noun
infl|af|noun|plural|babas

1. baby

Albanian

Noun
infl|sq|noun

1. father

Bosnian

Noun
bs-noun|g=f|babe

1. grandmother
2. grandma, granny
3. old woman

Synonyms
nena#Bosnian|nena

Croatian

Noun
hr-noun|g=f|babe

1. grandmother
2. grandma
3. granny
4. old woman

Declension
hr-decl-noun
|baba|babe
|babe|baba
|babi|babama
|babu|babe
|babo|babe
|babi|babama
|babom|babama

Finnish

Noun
fi-noun|bab|type=kala

1. #English|Baba, babka, a type of cake.

Category:fi:Desserts

French

Pronunciation
IPA|/ba.ba/, SAMPA|/ba.ba/

Noun
fr-noun|m

1. #English|baba i|type of cake

German

Etymology
A link of the term with the American term|bye-bye is possible but not certain.

Interjection
infl|de|interjection

1. context|informal|especially|_|in|_|Austria|lang=de see you, so long

Usage notes
In Austria, especially East Austria, baba is the most commonly used informal term for saying "goodbye".

Hungarian

Noun
infl|hu|noun

1. doll
2. baby i|very young child

Japanese

Noun
ja-noun|k|hira��|hidx��'

1. ja-def|� old woman
2. ja-def|�� (playing card)joker
3. ja-def|�� grandmother
4. ja-def|馬場 riding ground
5. ja-def|� excrement, feces
6. ja-def|� excrement, feces

Mandarin
zh-hanzi|��

Pronunciation
IPA|[pa˥˩pa]

Noun
cmn-noun|p|pinbàba|pintba4ba|tas=��

1. dad, papa

See also
qualifier|Min Nan �� (a-pah)

Polish

Noun
infl|pl|noun

1. old woman, woman qualifier|impolite

Romanian

Pronunciation
IPA|['ba.ba]|lang=ro

Noun
ro-noun-def|fs|na|bab�

1. the old woman

Serbian

Noun
sr-noun|g=f|babe

1. grandmother
2. grandma, granny
3. old woman

Cyrillic spelling
баба#Serbian|баба

Spanish

Etymology
From the hypothetical L.|es word *term|baba|lang=la.

Pronunciation
IPA|/�baβa/

Noun
es-noun-f

1. drool, dribble

#:*La chacha lavaba, y mientras lavaba, la baba se le caía — The maid washed, and as she washed, she drooled. (classroom example of b/v use)

See also
cieno
lama

Tagalog

Adjective
infl|tl|adjective

1. low
2. short

Noun
infl|tl|noun

1. chin

Verb
infl|tl|verb

1. to descend

Turkish

Etymology
The sense of "father" from Pers.|tr term|scFAchar|بابا|trb�b�|lang=fa.

Noun
infl|tr|noun

1. father
2. Saint w:Gül Baba|Gül Baba

Derived terms
top4
�dem baba
a�ababa
ana baba
Arap Baba
baba adam
baba buca�ı
baba evi
baba hindi
baba mirası
mid4
baba nasihati
baba oca�ı
Baba Oruç
baba tatlısı
baba yadigârı
baba yurdu
babaanne
babacan
babayi�it
mid4
ballıbaba
büyük baba
dedebaba
devlet baba
efendibaba
Gani Baba
Gül Baba
Haçkalı Baba
iskele babası
mid4
kayın baba
Mimi Baba
Noel baba
pa�a baba
�am Baba
Somuncu Baba
üvey baba

af:baba
az:baba
de:baba
el:baba
es:baba
fr:baba
hr:baba
io:baba
id:baba
it:baba
csb:baba
hu:baba
nl:baba
pl:baba
pt:baba
ro:baba
ru:baba
sq:baba
fi:baba
vi:baba
tr:baba
zh:baba

• 2008-01-01 19:29 - VolkovBot - robot Adding: [[it:baba]]

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