bab

Clipping of babby (“baby”).

• IPA^(key): /bæb/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -æb

bab (plural babs)

1. (UK, informal) Baby
2. (fishing, East Anglia) A bait for eels, consisting of a bundle of live worms.
   • 2006 February 1, John Meiklejohn, “Babbing for eels”, in BBC - WW2 People's War‎^[1]:

     The worms were threaded onto the yarn until we had 4 or 5 feet of big juicy worms threaded through. We would coil it all up and put an old rusty nut at the centre and tie it on a bit of string on an old ash pole — this was the bab.

• (baby): see Thesaurus:baby
• (bait): clod

bab (third-person singular simple present babs, present participle babbing, simple past and past participle babbed)

1. (intransitive, fishing, East Anglia) To fish for eels using a bab.
   • 1884, George Christopher Davies, Norfolk Broads and Rivers, W. Blackwood and sons, page 244:

     The babbers follow the eels, and you may see fifteen boats as close together as possible, babbing away, and catching as much as four stone-weight of eels per boat of a night.

   • 1948, William Guy, Mostly Memories: Some Digressions, C. J. Cousland, page 24:

     Sometimes we trolled or set liggers for pike, we seldom babbed for eels, it was such a slimy job.

   • 2006 February 1, John Meiklejohn, “Babbing for eels”, in BBC - WW2 People's War‎^[2]:

     Another classic example was babbing for eels; he would come along and say — ‘Goodnight for babbing, make you some babs’.

• B.B.A., BBA, abb, abb.

• labab

From French barbe.

• IPA^(key): /bab/

bab

1. beard, whiskers

• bab kabrit (“goatee”)
• bab pou bab (“face to face”)

From a Slavic language, compare Serbo-Croatian bob, Slovak bôb, Russian боб (bob, “bean”), from Proto-Slavic *bobъ.

• IPA^(key): [ˈbɒb]

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɒb

bab (usually uncountable, plural babok)

1. bean

   Synonyms: (regional) fuszulyka, (regional) paszuly, (obsolete; today “peas”) borsó

Inflection (stem in -o-, back harmony)
	singular	plural
nominative	bab	babok
accusative	babot	babokat
dative	babnak	baboknak
instrumental	babbal	babokkal
causal-final	babért	babokért
translative	babbá	babokká
terminative	babig	babokig
essive-formal	babként	babokként
essive-modal	—	—
inessive	babban	babokban
superessive	babon	babokon
adessive	babnál	baboknál
illative	babba	babokba
sublative	babra	babokra
allative	babhoz	babokhoz
elative	babból	babokból
delative	babról	babokról
ablative	babtól	baboktól
non-attributive possessive - singular	babé	baboké
non-attributive possessive - plural	babéi	babokéi

Possessive forms of bab
possessor	single possession	multiple possessions
1st person sing.	babom	babjaim
2nd person sing.	babod	babjaid
3rd person sing.	babja	babjai
1st person plural	babunk	babjaink
2nd person plural	babotok	babjaitok
3rd person plural	babjuk	babjaik

• bab in Bárczi, Géza and László Országh. A magyar nyelv értelmező szótára (“The Explanatory Dictionary of the Hungarian Language”, abbr.: ÉrtSz.). Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 1959–1962. Fifth ed., 1992: →ISBN
• bab in Nóra Ittzés, editor, A magyar nyelv nagyszótára [A Comprehensive Dictionary of the Hungarian Language] (Nszt.), Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 2006–2031 (work in progress; published a–ez as of 2024).

From Malay bab, from Arabic بَاب (bāb).

• IPA^(key): /bab/, [ˈbap̚]

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -bap, -ap, -p
• Hyphenation: bab

bab (plural bab-bab, first-person possessive babku, second-person possessive babmu, third-person possessive babnya)

1. chapter (of a book)
2. door, gate

   Synonyms: gapura, pintu

3. case, matter

   Synonyms: hal, masalah

• “bab” in Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia, Jakarta: Agency for Language Development and Cultivation – Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology of the Republic of Indonesia, 2016.

bab m (genitive singular bab, nominative plural babanna)

1. Alternative form of bob (“bob; fringe”)

bab m (genitive singular bab, nominative plural babanna)

1. Alternative form of bob (“stump, target”)

• Ó Dónaill, Niall (1977) “bab”, in Foclóir Gaeilge–Béarla, Dublin: An Gúm, →ISBN

From Arabic بَاب (bāb).

• IPA^(key): /bap/
• Rhymes: -bap, -ap

bab (Jawi spelling باب, plural bab-bab, informal 1st possessive babku, 2nd possessive babmu, 3rd possessive babnya)

1. chapter (section in a book)

• “bab” in Pusat Rujukan Persuratan Melayu | Malay Literary Reference Centre, Kuala Lumpur: Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka, 2017.

bab

1. father or paternal uncle

bab

1. Alternative form of babe

• bav

bab m

1. father

From Pre-Palauan *babo, from Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *babaw, from Proto-Austronesian *babaw.

bab

1. above, top

• IPA^(key): /ˈbap/
• Rhymes: -ap
• Syllabification: bab

bab f

1. genitive plural of baba

• 𐴁𐴝𐴁𐴢 (bab) — Hanifi Rohingya script

From Sanskrit वप्र (vapra). Cognate with Sylheti ꠛꠣꠙ (baf), Assamese বাপ (bap), Bengali বাপ (bap), Hindi बाप (bāp).

bab (Hanifi spelling 𐴁𐴝𐴁𐴢)

1. father

   Synonym: baf

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

• (Central Romagnol): IPA^(key): [ˈbaɐ̯b]

bab m (plural bëb)

1. Alternative form of ba
   • 1920, Olindo Guerrini, edited by Zanichelli, Sonetti romagnoli, published 1967:

     Allora e' babb d' sta bela zuvintò

     And then the father of this beautiful youth

• Masotti, Adelmo (1996) Vocabolario Romagnolo Italiano [Romagnol-Italian dictionary] (in Italian), Bologna: Zanichelli, page 51

• bap (Puter, Vallader)

From Late Latin *babbus. Compare Sardinian babbu.

• IPA^(key): [baːp]

bab m (plural babs)

1. (Rumantsch Grischun, Sursilvan, Sutsilvan, Surmiran) father

• mamma

• pader (term to address a priest or monk)

Compare bob, likely cognate of English bob, from Middle English bobben (“to strike, to shake”).

bab (third-person singular simple present babs, present participle babbin, simple past bab'd, past participle bab'd)

1. synonym of bob (“to move up and down”)
2. to dance, to hop
   • 1733, Allan Ramsay, “Christ’s Kirk on the Green”, in Poems by Allan Ramsay‎^[3], page 52:

     The lasses bab’d about the reel / Gar’d a’ their hurdies wallop

     The girls danced around the ring / Making their bottoms gallop

From older Scots bob; compare Middle English bobbe (“cluster of fruit; spray of leaves”).

bab (plural babs)

1. nosegay, a bunch of flowers; a tassel, a bunch of ribbons
2. (in compounds) something fine, something decorated

   wooer bab ― a garter tied below the knee

3. a lump, dollop
4. (figuratively) a lumpish person, an idiot

From Northern Middle English bab, a variant of babe.

bab (plural babs)

1. (obsolete) a babe, baby

• “bab, v.”, in The Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries, 2004–present, →OCLC.
• “bobben v.¹”, in Middle English Compendium, 2019 November
• “bab, n.¹”, in The Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries, 2004–present, →OCLC.
• “bob, n.¹”, in The Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries, 2004–present, →OCLC.
• “bob, n.¹.”, in The Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries, 2004–present, →OCLC, reproduced from William A[lexander] Craigie, A[dam] J[ack] Aitken [et al.], editors, A Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue: […], Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, 1931–2002, →OCLC.
• “bobbe”, in Middle English Compendium, 2019 November
• “bab, n.”, in The Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries, 2004–present, →OCLC, reproduced from William A[lexander] Craigie, A[dam] J[ack] Aitken [et al.], editors, A Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue: […], Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, 1931–2002, →OCLC.

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

• IPA^(key): /pap/

bab m (genitive singular baba, plural baban or babannan)

1. tuft, tassel
2. child's excrement (hence abab)
3. stain

   Bithidh sin 'n a bhab air fhad 's is beò e.

   That will be a stain on him as long as he lives.

• abab

• Edward Dwelly (1911) “bab”, in Faclair Gàidhlig gu Beurla le Dealbhan [The Illustrated Gaelic–English Dictionary]‎^[4], 10th edition, Edinburgh: Birlinn Limited, →ISBN
• MacLennan, Malcolm (1925) A Pronouncing and Etymological Dictionary of the Gaelic Language, Edinburgh: J. Grant, →OCLC

• IPA^(key): /baːb/

bab

1. Soft mutation of pab.

bab (m)

1. father (sort form)