baba

¹

[ bah-buh; French ba-ba ]

noun

, plural ba·bas [bah, -b, uh, z, b, a, -, ba].

1. a spongelike cake leavened with yeast and often containing raisins, baked in a small mold and then usually soaked with a rum syrup.
2. Baba. (especially in Slavic or Eastern European cultures) an elderly woman or grandmother:

   In our house lived my parents, my baba—God rest her soul—my three siblings, and me.

baba

²

or Ba·ba

[ bah-buh, bah-bah ]

noun

, Indian English.

1. father (also used as a polite term of address for any older man):

   That's the second lesson my Baba taught me growing up—that consistent hard work is very important and always pays off.

2. a male spiritual leader (also used as a title with the leader’s name):

   I devoured hundreds of religious books, including those by many Hindu babas and sadhus.

   She is a devout follower of Sai Baba, a spiritual leader known for his teachings of love, compassion, and selflessness.

3. a baby or young child.

baba

/ baba; ˈbɑːbɑː /

noun

1. a small cake of leavened dough, sometimes mixed with currants and usually soaked in rum ( rum baba )

Word History and Origins

Origin of baba¹

First recorded in 1820–30; from French, from Polish: literally, “old woman, peasant woman,” a nursery term of imitative origin ( babushka ( def ), mama ( def ) ); the cake was introduced into France by the court of the exiled Polish king Stanislaus I

Origin of baba²

First recorded in 1765–75; from Hindi, Urdu bābā “father, male elder,” a nursery term of imitative origin; dad ¹( def ), papa ( def )

Word History and Origins

Origin of baba¹

C19: from French, from Polish, literally: old woman

Example Sentences

Instead of making the baba ganoush, you could buy some, and by skipping those two steps, you’ve saved a reasonable amount of time.

From Salon

"We are heartbroken and numb by this tragedy and the loss of our vibrant mother, baba and great baba," said the family of Helen Kufley.

From BBC

In the standard Mandarin spoken in China, for instance, baba — father — is pronounced with an emphasis on the first syllable, said Hongyin Tao, a professor of Chinese language and linguistics at UCLA.

From Los Angeles Times

And while I enjoyed the fire show with the baba au rhum, the confection was so boozy, it was better suited for a glass than a plate.

From Washington Post

“Oni” means “demon,” she said, while “baba” means “old lady.”

From Seattle Times