ba-ba

Noun

baba (usually countable, plural babas)

1. (also, uncountable, usually) A kind of sponge cake soaked in rum-flavoured syrup.
   • The trolley of fresh local cheeses, including the region's pride, mozzarella di bufala, is as attractive as the trolley of classic Neapolitan desserts, including pastiera napolitana (a ricotta cake with orange rind), feather-light baba, and, in mid-March, zeppola di San Giuseppe (whose feast day is...1994 May 1, Maureen B. Fant, “CHOICE TABLES; Tastes Swing Back To Flavors of Naples”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 26...
2. (usually, especially among people of Eastern European ancestry) A grandmother.
   • My baba, Ksenia Dubinsky, tells me that my education makes her proud.1993, Karen Dubinsky, Improper Advances: Rape and Heterosexual Conflict in Ontario, 1880-1929, University of Chicago Press
3. (broadly, usually) An old woman, especially a traditional old woman from an Eastern European culture.
   • Only two women, typical "babas" (peasant women) in the house from which I got my quilt and bedcloth, could be coaxed to pose;1914, Russell Sage Foundation, Wage-earning Pittsburgh
4. (usually, especially among people of Indian or Chinese ancestry) A father.
   • The first time I signed my exercise I wrote "Pisistratus Caxton" in my best round-hand. "And dey call your baba a scholar!" said the Doctor, contemptuously.1849, Edward Bulwer Lytton, The Caxtons
5. (Hinduism, Sikhism, usually) A holy man, a spiritual leader.
   • While I was in Port Alberni, three babas came to Canada to raise money ...1995, Hugh J.M. Johnston, Tara Singh Bains, The Four Quarters of the Night: The Life-Journey of an Emigrant Sikh
6. (British, India, usually) A baby, child.
   • That is to say, if I do not take care, I shall go on calling my darling 'Baba' till she is as old as her mamma, and has a dozen Babas of her own.1876, Sir George Otto Trevelyan, The Life and Letters of Lord Macaulay

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