Etymology: < classical Latin Babylōnius Babylonian n. Compare Anglo-Norman Babiloyn (14th cent. or earlier), Italian †babilonio (first half of the 14th cent.).In Old English apparently attested only in the translation of Orosius Hist., and usually belonging to the i -stem declension typical for ethnonyms (however, compare accusative plural Babylonias in quot. eOE²). The word was perhaps reborrowed in the 14th cent.

Etymology: < the name of the city of Babylon ( < classical Latin Babylōn < ancient Greek Βαβυλών < Hebrew Bāḇel : see Babel n.). Corresponding forms of the name of the city are also attested in other European languages (also in similar transferred uses), e.g. Middle French Babilone, Babillone (a1400; French Babylone), Spanish †Babilon (15th cent.), Middle Dutch Babilone (Dutch Babylon), German Babylon (early 16th cent. or earlier). Compare also ( < classical Latin Babylōnia) Anglo-Norman Babeloine, Anglo-Norman and Middle French Babiloine, Babiloyne (first half of the 12th cent.; Middle French, French Babylonie), Spanish Babilonia (a1250), Italian Babilonia (second half of the 13th cent.; first half of the 13th cent. as †Babelonia; also †Babylonia), Middle Dutch Babilonie, Babylonie (Dutch Babylonië), all as names of the city of Babylon as well as of the ancient Babylonian Empire.The ancient city of Babylon in Mesopotamia (modern Iraq), was the capital of the Babylonian or Chaldean Empire, and was renowned in antiquity for its magnificence. It was the site of the famous Hanging Gardens, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world; it is also thought to have been the original site of the biblical Tower of Babel. The captivity and exile of the Jews in Babylon in the 6th cent. B.C. at the height of the power of the Babylonian Empire under Nebuchadnezzar is an event of supreme significance in Jewish history, and underpins the symbolic description in the New Testament (Revelation 14–18) of ‘Babylon the Great’, a city of unparalleled worldliness. Babylon and Babylonia occur as place names in English contexts from the Old English period onwards (in various forms; in quot. c1390 as the former name of a district of Old Cairo, also called Babylon the Less, site of a shrine of St Barbara and church of Our Lady):OE Ælfric Catholic Homilies: 1st Ser. (Royal) (1997) xxxvii. 504 Abacuc, ber þone mete to Babylone & syle Danihele se þe sit on þæra leona seaðe.OE Daniel 164 Ða hæfde Daniel dom micelne, blæd in Babilonia mid bocerum, siððan he gesæde swefen cyninge.c1225 (?c1200) St. Margaret (Royal) (1934) 41 Babilones men..breken þat feat.c1275 (?a1200) Laȝamon Brut (Calig.) (1978) l. 13810 He isæh i þan fihte enne ueond fusen, þat on admirail [c1300 Otho admurel], of Babiloine he wes ældere.1340 Ayenbite (1866) 205 Þe children..weren y-borȝe ine þe fornayse of babyloyne.c1390 (a1376) W. Langland Piers Plowman (Vernon) (1867) A. vi. 18 Bethleem and Babiloyne [c1400 C text Babilonie], I haue ben in boþe. ▸ a1398 J. Trevisa tr. Bartholomaeus Anglicus De Proprietatibus Rerum (BL Add. 27944) (1975) II. xv. xxii. 738 Babilonia is a prouynce of Asia in Caldea, þe hede þereof is þe cite Babilon.c1405 (c1390) G. Chaucer Man of Law's Tale (Hengwrt) (2003) Prol. l. 63 Ther maystow seen the large woundes wyde Of Lucresse and of Babilan [c1410 Harl. 7334 Babiloun, c1430 Cambr. Gg.4.27 babiloyn] Tisbee.c1450 King Ponthus (Digby) in Publ. Mod. Lang. Assoc. Amer. (1897) 12 1 In that tyme itt happened in the Est that the sawdeyn of Babilon was of gret power.a1500 (?a1400) Stanzaic Life of Christ (Harl. 3909) (1926) l. 86 Peple of Israel home wer broght ffrom Babilony.1572 T. Twyne tr. Dionysius Periegetes Surueye World sig. E ^v Aboue Babylon towards the north, dwell a people called Cissi.1654 B. Oley Some Notes of Publisher in T. Jackson Exact Coll. Wks. 3137 He..travail'd through Ægypt, Babylonie, and Lacedæmon.1701 M. Pix Double Distress i. 7 Now the haughty Medeans from Euphrates Banks And Babylon's exalted Towers, Have to Persepolis their bloody Standards rear'd.1864 W. F. Ainsworth Geogr. Comm. in J. S. Watson tr. Xenophon Anabasis 285 The numerous artificial mounds, topes, or tells, sometimes sepulchral, sometimes heaps of ruin, which abound on the plain of Babylonia.1901 Anaconda (Montana) Standard 3 Mar. 9/1 The German scientific expedition..has discovered in Babylon the ancient ‘procession’ road to Marduk.1976 J. Neusner Talmudic Judaism in Sasanian Babylonia i. 3 A minimum of two hundred thousand, and probably more like half a million, Jews lived in Babylonia and Mesopotamia in Parthian and Sasanian times.2005 N. Fick One Bullet Away 355 Saddam..reconstructed Babylon not according to any archaeological evidence, but to tickle his own fancy.

Etymology: < Babylon n.²