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, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
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English
Etymology
Clipping of babby (“baby”).
Pronunciation
Noun
bab (plural babs)
- (UK, informal) Baby
- (fishing, East Anglia) A bait for eels, consisting of a bundle of live worms.
2006 February 1, John Meiklejohn, “Babbing for eels”, in BBC - WW2 People's War:The worms were threaded onto the yarn until we had 4 or 5 feet of big juicy worms threaded through. We would coil it all up and put an old rusty nut at the centre and tie it on a bit of string on an old ash pole — this was the bab.
Synonyms
Verb
bab (third-person singular simple present babs, present participle babbing, simple past and past participle babbed)
- (intransitive, fishing, East Anglia) To fish for eels using a bab.
1884, George Christopher Davies, Norfolk Broads and Rivers, W. Blackwood and sons, page 244:The babbers follow the eels, and you may see fifteen boats as close together as possible, babbing away, and catching as much as four stone-weight of eels per boat of a night.
1948, William Guy, Mostly Memories: Some Digressions, C. J. Cousland, page 24:Sometimes we trolled or set liggers for pike, we seldom babbed for eels, it was such a slimy job.
2006 February 1, John Meiklejohn, “Babbing for eels”, in BBC - WW2 People's War:Another classic example was babbing for eels; he would come along and say — ‘Goodnight for babbing, make you some babs’.
Anagrams
Haitian Creole
Alternative forms
Etymology
From French barbe.
Pronunciation
Noun
bab
- beard, whiskers
Derived terms
Hungarian
Etymology
From a Slavic language, compare Serbo-Croatian bob, Slovak bôb, Russian боб (bob, “bean”), from Proto-Slavic *bobъ.
Pronunciation
Noun
bab (usually uncountable, plural babok)
- bean
- Synonyms: (regional) fuszulyka, (regional) paszuly, (obsolete; today “peas”) borsó
Declension
Derived terms
Further reading
- bab in Bárczi, Géza and László Országh. A magyar nyelv értelmező szótára (‘The Explanatory Dictionary of the Hungarian Language’, abbr.: ÉrtSz.). Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 1959–1962. Fifth ed., 1992: →ISBN
- bab in Ittzés, Nóra (ed.). A magyar nyelv nagyszótára (‘A Comprehensive Dictionary of the Hungarian Language’). Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 2006–2031 (work in progress; published A–ez as of 2024)
Indonesian
Etymology
From Malay bab, from Arabic بَاب (bāb).
Pronunciation
Noun
bab (plural bab-bab, first-person possessive babku, second-person possessive babmu, third-person possessive babnya)
- chapter (of a book)
- door, gate
- Synonyms: gapura, pintu
- case, matter
- Synonyms: hal, masalah
Further reading
Irish
Noun
bab m (genitive singular bab, nominative plural babanna)
- Alternative form of bob (“bob; fringe”)
Noun
bab m (genitive singular bab, nominative plural babanna)
- Alternative form of bob (“stump, target”)
Declension
Mutation
Irish mutation
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Radical
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Lenition
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Eclipsis
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bab
|
bhab
|
mbab
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Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.
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References
Malay
Etymology
From Arabic بَاب (bāb).
Pronunciation
Noun
bab (Jawi spelling باب, plural bab-bab, informal 1st possessive babku, 2nd possessive babmu, 3rd possessive babnya)
- chapter (section in a book)
Further reading
Meriam
Noun
bab
- father or paternal uncle
Middle English
Noun
bab
- Alternative form of babe
Northern Kurdish
Alternative forms
Noun
bab m
- father
Palauan
Etymology
From Pre-Palauan *babo, from Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *babaw, from Proto-Austronesian *babaw.
Adjective
bab
- above, top
Polish
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /bap/
- Rhymes: -ap
- Syllabification: bab
Noun
bab f
- genitive plural of baba
Rohingya
Alternative forms
Etymology
From Sanskrit वप्र (vapra). Cognate with Sylheti ꠛꠣꠙ (baf), Assamese বাপ (bap), Bengali বাপ (bap), Hindi बाप (bāp).
Noun
bab (Hanifi spelling 𐴁𐴝𐴁𐴢)
- father
- Synonym: baf
Romagnol
Etymology
See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.
Pronunciation
Noun
bab m (plural bëb)
- Alternative form of ba
1920, Olindo Guerrini, edited by Zanichelli, Sonetti romagnoli, published 1967:Allora e' babb d' sta bela zuvintò- And then the father of this beautiful youth
References
- Masotti, Adelmo (1996) Vocabolario Romagnolo Italiano [Romagnol-Italian dictionary] (in Italian), Bologna: Zanichelli, page 51
Romansch
Alternative forms
Etymology
From Late Latin *babbus. Compare Sardinian babbu.
Pronunciation
Noun
bab m (plural babs)
- (Rumantsch Grischun, Sursilvan, Sutsilvan, Surmiran) father
Coordinate terms
See also
- pader (term to address a priest or monk)
Scots
Etymology 1
Compare bob, likely cognate of English bob, from Middle English bobben (“to strike, to shake”).
Verb
bab (third-person singular simple present babs, present participle babbin, simple past bab'd, past participle bab'd)
- synonym of bob (“to move up and down”)
- to dance, to hop
1733, Allan Ramsay, “Christ’s Kirk on the Green”, in Poems by Allan Ramsay, page 52:The lasses bab’d about the reel / Gar’d a’ their hurdies wallop- The girls danced around the ring / Making their bottoms gallop
Etymology 2
From older Scots bob; compare Middle English bobbe (“cluster of fruit; spray of leaves”).
Noun
bab (plural babs)
- nosegay, a bunch of flowers; a tassel, a bunch of ribbons
- (in compounds) something fine, something decorated
- wooer bab ― a garter tied below the knee
- a lump, dollop
- (figuratively) a lumpish person, an idiot
Etymology 3
From Northern Middle English bab, a variant of babe.
Noun
bab (plural babs)
- (obsolete) a babe, baby
References
- “bab, v.” in the Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries.
- “bobben v.1”, in Middle English Compendium, 2019 November
- “bab, n.1” in the Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries.
- “bob, n.1” in the Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries.
- “bob, n.1.”, in The Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries, 2004–present, →OCLC, reproduced from William A Craigie, A J Aitken , editors, A Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue: , Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, 1931–2002, →OCLC.
- “bobbe”, in Middle English Compendium, 2019 November
- “bab, n.”, in The Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries, 2004–present, →OCLC, reproduced from William A Craigie, A J Aitken , editors, A Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue: , Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, 1931–2002, →OCLC.
Scottish Gaelic
Etymology
(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)
Pronunciation
Noun
bab m (genitive singular baba, plural baban or babannan)
- tuft, tassel
- child's excrement (hence abab)
- stain
Bithidh sin 'n a bhab air fhad 's is beò e.- That will be a stain on him as long as he lives.
Related terms
Mutation
Scottish Gaelic mutation
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Radical
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Lenition
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bab |
bhab
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Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.
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Further reading
- Edward Dwelly (1911) “bab”, in Faclair Gàidhlig gu Beurla le Dealbhan [The Illustrated Gaelic–English Dictionary], 10th edition, Edinburgh: Birlinn Limited, →ISBN
- MacLennan, Malcolm (1925) A Pronouncing and Etymological Dictionary of the Gaelic Language, Edinburgh: J. Grant, →OCLC
Welsh
Pronunciation
Noun
bab
- Soft mutation of pab.
Mutation
Zazaki
Noun
bab (m)
- father (sort form)