babu

• baboo (dated)

From Hindi बाबू (bābū).

• IPA^(key): /ˈbɑːbuː/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

babu (plural babus) (India, Hinglish)

1. A Hindu title of respect, equivalent to Mr., usually appended to the surname of a Hindu man
   • 1989, Amitav Ghosh, Shadow Lines:

     I could see Kana-babu’s sweet-shop at the end of their lane with absolute clarity.

2. (Originally) a Hindu gentleman employed to work as a clerk for the colonial administration; now, a clerk or low-ranking government official.
   • 1888, Rudyard Kipling, “His Chance in Life”, in Plain Tales from the Hills, Folio, published 2005, page 57:

     The Babu put on his cap and quietly dropped out of the window

   • 1934 October, George Orwell [pseudonym; Eric Arthur Blair], “Chapter 2”, in Burmese Days, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, Publishers, →OCLC:

     Office babus are the real rulers of this country now. Our number's up. Best thing we can do is to shut up shop and let 'em stew in their own juice.

   • 2014, James Lambert, “Diachronic stability in Indian English lexis”, in World Englishes, page 116:

     From the prevailing colonial perspective, the English of the babus was error-ridden and characterised by over-elaborate ornateness, and for these ‘transgressions’ it became the butt of native-speaker ridicule.

From Javanese ꦧꦧꦸ (babu, “female servant”, literally “mother”), from Old Javanese babu (“mother; older servant”), wawuh (“familiar, acquainted”). Compare Portuguese babo.

babu

1. A mother.

   Synonym: mama

2. An aunt.
3. Term for any middle-aged or elderly woman.

From Proto-Austronesian *babuy.

babu

1. pig (livestock)

• babo (dated)
• baboe (dated)

Inherited from Malay babu, from Javanese ꦧꦧꦸ (babu, “female servant”, literally “mother”), from Old Javanese babu (“mother; older servant”), wawuh (“familiar, acquainted”). Compare Portuguese babo.

• IPA^(key): /ˈbabu/
• Hyphenation: ba‧bu
• Rhymes: -bu, -u

babu (plural babu-babu, first-person possessive babuku, second-person possessive babumu, third-person possessive babunya)

1. housemaid

• jongos

• “babu” in Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia, Jakarta: Agency for Language Development and Cultivation – Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology of the Republic of Indonesia, 2016.

From Hindi बाबू (bābū). Cognate to Önge babu.

• IPA^(key): /babu/

babu

1. official, officer (of the Indian government of the Andamans)

• Kumar, Pramod (2012) Descriptive and Typological Study of Jarawa (PhD). Jawaharlal Nehru University. Page 111, 141, 187.

babu

1. Romanization of ꦧꦧꦸ

• IPA^(key):

babu

1. accusative/instrumental singular of baba

Unknown, probably from Proto-Mon-Khmer *(ʔ)boʔ (“mother”) (compare Temiar buk (“mother”), Jehai baboʔ (“woman”), Vietnamese vợ (“wife”), and Mon ၝောံ (bɜ̀ʔ)).

• IPA^(key): /ba.bu/
• Rhymes: -bu
• Hyphenation: ba‧bu

babu

1. mother

   Synonyms: babu, bibi, ibu, iduṅ, ina, inaṅ, induṅ, janmayoni, mātā, matuh, rena

2. older servant

• > Javanese: ꦧꦧꦸ (babu) (inherited)
  • → Dutch: baboe
  • → Brunei Malay: babu
  • → Malay: babu
    • Indonesian: babu
  • → Peranakan Indonesian: babu
• → Balinese: ᬩᬩᬸ (babu)

• "babu" in P.J. Zoetmulder with the collaboration of S.O. Robson, Old Javanese-English Dictionary. 's-Gravenhage: M. Nijhoff, 1982.

babu (Cyrillic spelling бабу)

1. accusative singular of baba

babu

1. two

• IPA^(key):

babu

1. accusative singular of baba

Swahili Wikipedia has an article on:

babu

Wikipedia ^sw

• Audio (Kenya):

  (file)

babu (n class, plural babu)

1. grandfather (from either side)

• bibi

• vavu

A play on babay or English bye-bye.

• (Standard Tagalog) IPA^(key): /baˈbu/
• Rhymes: -u
• Syllabification: ba‧bu

babú (Baybayin spelling ᜊᜊᜓ)

1. (slang) goodbye; ta ta

   Synonyms: paalam, babay

• IPA^(key):

babu (Jawi بابو)

1. (intransitive) (of humans) to fall

   Synonym: doro (of non-humans)

   ngofa ibabu ― children fall

   ibabu toma kaha ― they fell on the ground

2. (intransitive) to be overthrown

• Frederik Sigismund Alexander de Clercq (1890) Bijdragen tot de kennis der Residentie Ternate, E.J. Brill
• Rika Hayami-Allen (2001) A descriptive study of the language of Ternate, the northern Moluccas, Indonesia, University of Pittsburgh

From Proto-Finnic *papu. The initial b- was introduced by analogy with Russian боб (bob).

babu

1. bean

• Zajceva, N. G., Mullonen, M. I. (2007) “боб”, in Uz’ venä-vepsläine vajehnik / Novyj russko-vepsskij slovarʹ [New Russian–Veps Dictionary]‎, Petrozavodsk: Periodika

babu

1. father