ba

See also: Appendix:Variations of "ba"

English

Etymology 1

Borrowed from Old French baer (“to open the mouth”); compare French bayer.

Verb

ba (third-person singular simple present bas, present participle baing, simple past and past participle baed)

1. (transitive, obsolete) To kiss.
   • Geoffrey Chaucer, The Tale of the Wyf of Bathe

     Com neer, my spouse, lat me ba thy cheke!

Etymology 2

Borrowed from Egyptian bꜣ,

Noun

ba (plural bas)

1. In ancient Egyptian mythology, a being's soul or personality, represented as a bird-headed figure, which survives after death but must be sustained with offerings of food.
   • 1983, Norman Mailer, Ancient Evenings:

     But the Ba, I remembered, could be seen as the mistress of your heart and might or might not decide to speak to you, just as the heart cannot always forgive.

Etymology 3

The sound is very commonly made by infants, and is interpreted by parents as a reference to themselves.

Noun

ba (plural bas) (not generally used in the plural)

1. (colloquial, and in direct address) father, baba

Etymology 4

Alternative forms

• ba'

Noun

ba (uncountable)

1. (historical) A medieval football game played in parts of Scotland around Christmas and New Year.
   • 2011, Alistair Moffat, The Borders

     The townsmen played ba often and clearly knew what they were doing.

Anagrams

• -ab, A&B, A.B., A/B, AB, Ab, a.b., ab, ab-, ab.

---

Akan

Verb

ba

1. (Fante) come

References

• Rose-Juliet Anyanwu, Fundamentals of Phonetics, Phonology and Tonology (2008)

---

Bakung

ba

Noun

ba

1. water (clear liquid H₂O)
2. water (mineral water)

---

Borôro

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈbaː/

Noun

ba

1. egg

---

Cebuano

Pronunciation 1

• (General Cebuano) IPA^(key): /ˈbaʔ/
• Rhymes: -aʔ

Particle

ba

1. final interrogative particle

Pronunciation 2

• (General Cebuano) IPA^(key): /ˈba/
• Rhymes: -a

Etymology

Short for baba.

Verb

ba

1. to piggyback; to carry someone on the back

---

Chichewa

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɓa/

Verb

-ba (infinitive kuba)

1. steal

Derived terms

• Verbal derivations:
  • Applicative: -bera
  • Other formations: -ba mawu (“eavesdrop”)

• Nominal derivations:
  • wakuba (“thief”)

---

Cimbrian

Pronoun

ba

1. (relative) that; which; who

Adverb

ba

1. (interrogative) where

References

• “ba” in Umberto Martello Martalar, Alfonso Bellotto, Dizionario della lingua Cimbra dei Setti Communi vicentini, 1st edition, 1974.

---

Duun

Etymology

Onomatopoeic?

Noun

ba

1. goat

Further reading

• Duungooma ABC (alphabet duun), page 3

---

Eastern Penan

Noun

ba

1. water

References

• Dictionary of Eastern Penan

---

Gothic

Romanization

ba

1. Romanization of 𐌱𐌰

---

Haitian Creole

Verb

ba

1. give

Synonyms

• ban
• bay

---

Irish

Etymology 1

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bˠa/
• (Ulster) IPA^(key): /bˠɑh/

Noun

ba f pl

1. plural of bó

   Tá na ba sa mhá. ― The cows are in the field.

Etymology 2

From Old Irish ba.

Alternative forms

• (affirmative): b’ (used before a vowel sound except for the pronouns é, í, iad, ea)
• (relative): ab (used before a vowel sound)
• badh (archaic)
• budh (superseded)
• dob, dob' (dialectal equivalent of b’)

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bˠə/

Particle

ba (triggers lenition)

1. past and conditional affirmative of is

   Ba é Dónall an múinteoir. ― Dónall was the teacher.

   Ba mhaith liom cupán tae. ― I would like a cup of tea.

2. past and conditional direct relative of is (used to introduce the comparative/superlative form of adjectives)

   fear ba shine ná m'athair ― a man (who was) older than my father

Related terms

Irish copular forms

Simple copular forms Present/future Affirmative Negative Interrogative Neg. inter. Main clauses is ní an nach Direct relative clauses nach Indirect relative clauses ar, arbv Other subordinate clauses gur, gurbv an nach Past/conditional Affirmative Negative Interrogative Neg. inter. Main clauses ba, b’v níor, níorbhv ar, arbhv nár, nárbhv Direct relative clauses ba, abv nár, nárbhv Indirect relative clauses ar, arbhv Other subordinate clauses gur, gurbhv ar, arbhv nár, nárbhv Present subjunctive Affirmative Negative gura, gurabv nára, nárabv		Compound copular forms Base word Present/future Past/conditional má más má ba, má b’v ó (“since”) ós ó ba, ó b’v dá dá mba, dá mb’v mura mura, murabv murar, murarbhv cé cér, cérbv cér, cérbhv cá cár, cárbv cár, cárbhv de/do dar, darbv dar, darbhv faoi faoinar, faoinarbv faoinar, faoinarbhv i inar, inarbv inar, inarbhv le lenar, lenarbv lenar, lenarbhv ó (“from”) ónar, ónarbv ónar, ónarbhv trí trínar, trínarbv trínar, trínarbhv
v Used before vowel sounds

Mutation

Irish mutation
Radical	Lenition	Eclipsis
ba	bha	mba
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.

---

Italian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ba/

Interjection

ba

1. bah!
2. oh well!

---

Japanese

Romanization

ba

1. Rōmaji transcription of ば
2. Rōmaji transcription of バ

---

Kriol

Preposition

ba

1. Alternative form of blanga

---

Kurdish

Alternative forms

• با‎ (ba)

Etymology

From Proto-Iranian [Term?] (compare Avestan 𐬬𐬁𐬙𐬋‎ (vātō), Pashto and Persian باد‎ (bâd)), from Proto-Indo-Iranian [Term?] (compare Sanskrit वात (vā́ta)), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂wéh₁n̥ts (“blowing”), present participle of *h₂weh₁- (“to blow”).

Noun

ba m

1. weather
2. wind

---

Mandarin

Romanization

ba (Zhuyin ˙ㄅㄚ)

1. Pinyin transcription of 吧
2. Pinyin transcription of 罷, 罢
3. Pinyin transcription of 𣬶
4. Pinyin transcription of 𣬷

ba

1. Nonstandard spelling of bā.
2. Nonstandard spelling of bá.
3. Nonstandard spelling of bǎ.
4. Nonstandard spelling of bà.

Usage notes

• English transcriptions of Mandarin speech often fail to distinguish between the critical tonal differences employed in the Mandarin language, using words such as this one without the appropriate indication of tone.

---

Norwegian Bokmål

Alternative forms

• bad

Verb

ba

1. simple past of be

---

Old Irish

Alternative forms

• (2nd sg. pres. subj.): be

Verb

ba

1. inflection of is:
   1. first-person and second-person and third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. second-person singular imperative
   3. third-person singular preterite and imperfect indicative nonrelative and relative

---

Phuthi

Etymology

From Proto-Nguni *-ba, from Proto-Bantu *-báa.

Verb

-ba

1. to be
2. to become

Inflection

This entry needs an inflection-table template.

---

Swazi

Etymology

From Proto-Nguni *-ba, from Proto-Bantu *-báa.

Verb

-ba

1. to be
2. to become

Inflection

This verb needs an inflection-table template.

---

Tagalog

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ba/

Particle

ba

1. marks a sentence as interrogative

---

Tiruray

Noun

ba

1. (anatomy) mouth

---

Vietnamese

Pronunciation

• (Hà Nội) IPA^(key): [ʔɓaː˧˧]
• (Huế) IPA^(key): [ʔɓaː˧˧]
• (Hồ Chí Minh City) IPA^(key): [ʔɓaː˧˧]

Etymology 1

Non-Sino-Vietnamese reading of Chinese 爸 (“father”; SV: bả).

Noun

ba (巴, 爸)

1. (chiefly Southern Vietnam) father

Synonyms

• áng
• bác
• bọ
• bố
• cậu
• cha
• thầy
• tía

Etymology 2

Vietnamese cardinal numbers

<  2	3	4  >
Cardinal : ba

From Proto-Vietic *paː, from Proto-Mon-Khmer *piʔ; cognate with Muong pa, Khmer បី (bəy), Halang pe, Pacoh pe, Mon ပိ (pi).

Numeral

ba (巴, 𠀧)

1. (cardinal) three

Adjective

ba (巴, 𠀧)

1. (Southern Vietnam, ordinal, of a sibling) secondborn

   anh/chị ba ― second eldest brother/sister

   bác ba ― second eldest brother/sister of one's parent

   chú ba ― secondborn younger brother of one's father

Derived terms

• tháng ba (“March”)
• thứ ba (“third; Tuesday”)

Determiner

ba

1. (colloquial) some, an indefinite quantity greater than one

   Ba cái đó chả đáng quan tâm.

   There's no need to be concerned about those.

---

Volapük

Adverb

ba

1. perhaps

---

Xhosa

Etymology

From Proto-Nguni *-ba, from Proto-Bantu *-báa.

Verb

-ba

1. to be
2. to become

Inflection

This verb needs an inflection-table template.

---

Yapese

Verb

ba

1. (auxiliary) to be (doing something); forms the present tense

---

Zulu

Etymology

From Proto-Nguni *-ba, from Proto-Bantu *-báa.

Verb

-ba

1. to be
2. to become

Inflection

This verb needs an inflection-table template.

References

• C. M. Doke; B. W. Vilakazi (1972), “-ɓa”, in Zulu-English Dictionary, →ISBN: “-ɓa”