baba (n.)

light kind of plum cake, 1827, from French baba (19c.), the word and the thing said by French dictionaries to be from Polish baba.

also from 1827

Trends of baba

adapted from books.google.com/ngrams/. Ngrams are probably unreliable.

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babe

In many languages the word means "old woman" (compare Russian babushka "grandmother," from baba "peasant woman"), and it...[Hensleigh Wedgwood, "A Dictionary of English Etymology," 1859] Crist crid in cradil, "moder, baba!"...

sesame

magic charm in a 1722 translation of Galland's "Mille et une nuits," where it causes the door of the thieves' den in "Ali Baba...

cake

early 13c., "flat or comparatively thin mass of baked dough," from Old Norse kaka "cake," from West Germanic *kokon- (source also of Middle Dutch koke, Dutch koek "a cake, gingerbread, dumpling," Old High German kuohho, German Kuchen "a cake, a tart"). Not believed to be related

jeopardy

late 14c., jupartie , ioparde, etc., "danger, risk;" earlier "a cunning plan, a stratagem" (c. 1300), from or based on Old French jeu parti "a lost game," more correctly "a divided game, game with even chances" (hence "uncertainty"). The sense perhaps developed in Anglo-French. T

colonel

"chief commander of a regiment of troops," 1540s, coronell, from French coronel (16c.), modified by dissimilation from Italian colonnella "commander of the column of soldiers at the head of a regiment," from compagna colonella "little column company," from Latin columna "pillar,"

conception

early 14c., "act of conceiving in the womb," from Old French concepcion (Modern French conception) "conception, grasp, comprehension," from Latin conceptionem (nominative conceptio) "a comprehending, conception," noun of action from past-participle stem of concipere "to take in a

year

Old English gear (West Saxon), ger (Anglian) "year," from Proto-Germanic *jēr "year" (source also of Old Saxon, Old High German jar, Old Norse ar, Danish aar, Old Frisian ger, Dutch jaar, German Jahr, Gothic jer "year"), from PIE *yer-o-, from root *yer- "year, season" (source al

scissors

"pair of shears of medium or small size," late 14c., sisoures, also cisours, sesours, cisurs, etc., from Old French cisoires (plural) "shears," from Vulgar Latin *cisoria (plural) "cutting instrument," from *cisus (in compounds such as Latin excisus, past participle of excidere "

pariah

1610s, "member of a low caste in southern India, shunned as unclean," from Portuguese paria or directly from Tamil (Dravidian) paraiyar, plural of paraiyan "drummer" (at festivals, the hereditary duty of members of the largest of the lower castes of southern India), from parai "l

maverick

1867, "calf or yearling found without an owner's brand," a word from the great cattle ranches of the American West, so called for Samuel A. Maverick (1803-1870), Texas cattle owner who was notoriously negligent in branding his calves. All neat stock found running at large in thi

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updated on September 28, 2017

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Dictionary entries near baba

B.Sc.

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baa

Baal

Baath

baba

Babbitt

babble

babbling

babe

Babel