babuism

English

Etymology

From babu +‎ -ism.

Noun

babuism (countable and uncountable, plural babuisms)

1. A malapropism or other erroneous form produced by an Indian speaking English.
   • 1924, EM Forster, A Passage to India, Penguin 2005, p. 60:

     They altered the idiom, but they could say whatever they wanted to say quickly; there were none of the babuisms ascribed to them up at the Club.

   • 1972, Samuel Ichiyé Hayakawa, Language in thought and action (page 239)

     Abandoning its original application, then, let us use "babu English," or "babuism," as a general term to mean discourse in which the speaker (or writer) throws around learned words he does not understand in order to create a favorable impression. Babuism probably has existed and will continue to exist in every culture in which there is a learned class of magicians, shamans, priests, teachers, and other professional verbalizers with big vocabularies.

   • 2006, Rimi B. Chatterjee, Empires of the Mind

     This book, written 'with love' and based on Goffin's considerable experience as manager of first the Bombay Branch and then the whole India operation, was a spirited defence of Indian English as a legitimate form of the language, which, once it had thrown off its thrall to babuism, would take its place on the international stage.

Related terms

• babu English