babu
See also: Babu
English
Etymology
Pronunciation
Noun
babu (plural babus)
- (India) A Hindu title of respect, equivalent to Mr., usually appended to the surname of a Hindu man [from 18th c.]
- 1989, Amitav Ghosh, Shadow Lines:
- I could see Kana-babu’s sweet-shop at the end of their lane with absolute clarity.
- 1989, Amitav Ghosh, Shadow Lines:
- (India) (Originally) a Hindu gentleman employed to work as a clerk for the colonial administration; now, a clerk or low-ranking government official. [from 19th c.]
- 1888, Rudyard Kipling, ‘His Chance in Life’, Plain Tales from the Hills, Folio 2005, p. 57:
- The Babu put on his cap and quietly dropped out of the window
- 1934, George Orwell, Burmese Days, Chapter 2 [1]
- 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.
- 1888, Rudyard Kipling, ‘His Chance in Life’, Plain Tales from the Hills, Folio 2005, p. 57:
Derived terms
Indonesian
Noun
babu (first-person possessive babuku, second-person possessive babumu, third-person possessive babunya)
See also
Lower Sorbian
Pronunciation
Noun
babu
Shabo
Adjective
babu
Swahili
Noun
babu (n class, plural babu)
- grandfather (from either side)
Coordinate terms
Veps
Etymology
From Lua error in Module:parameters at line 290: Parameter 2 should be a valid language or etymology language code; the value "fiu-fin-pro" is not valid. See WT:LOL and WT:LOL/E.. The initial b- was introduced by analogy with Russian боб (bob).
Noun
babu
Inflection
References
- Zajceva, N. G., Mullonen, M. I. (2007) “боб”, in Uz’ venä-vepsläine vajehnik / Novyj russko-vepsskij slovarʹ [New Russian–Veps Dictionary][2], Petrozavodsk: Periodika
Yindjibarndi
Noun
babu
Categories:
- English terms derived from Hindi
- English 2-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- Indian English
- English terms with quotations
- Indonesian lemmas
- Indonesian nouns
- Lower Sorbian terms with IPA pronunciation
- Lower Sorbian non-lemma forms
- Lower Sorbian noun forms
- Shabo lemmas
- Shabo adjectives
- Swahili lemmas
- Swahili nouns
- Swahili n class nouns
- sw:Family
- Veps lemmas
- Veps nouns
- Yindjibarndi lemmas
- Yindjibarndi nouns
- yij:Family