baba1
/ˈbɑːbɑː
/(also rum baba)
noun
A small, rich sponge cake, typically soaked in rum-flavoured syrup: the cooked babas are hollowed out and filled with confectioners' custard...
- The rich, light, delicate yeast cake, made from flour, eggs, butter, and sugar, is related to brioche, baba, and savarin.
- Well, a rum baba and a treacle tart were atypically heavy.
- Bring soaking liquor to the boil and drop the babas in, rolling them to soak all over and become bloated.
Origin
Via French from Polish, literally 'married peasant woman'.
baba2
/ˈbɑːbɑː/noun Indian informal
1Father (often as a proper name or as a familiar form of address): ‘Baba and I have squabbled.’...
- Asked who this man was, the child mumbled proudly ‘Amaar baba (my father).’
- When face-to-face, he would just call him baba (father).
- She answered her father fearlessly: ‘Baba Saheb, you still wish to be revenged’.
1.1A respectful form of address for an older man: ‘Sit down, baba, you like tea?’...
- Sit down, baba, you like tea?
- Note that baba, on its own, can independently refer to an old wise man.
1.2 (often Baba) A holy man: Balyogi Baba was reputed to have been standing on one leg for eight years...
- Not surprisingly, the one-armed baba and other members of the militant ascetic Juna Akhara sect are big fans of the Ram temple.
- Ghani's life takes a turn when he falls in love with a medico, Indu, living in an ashram there, run by a baba.
- My father later explained that it was about this Baba (holy man) who would supposedly materialize objects from thin air.
2A child, especially a male one: ‘Remove the paper whenever you are ready, baba.’...
- The babas (girls and boys) are barely three or four years old.
- But officially sanctioned ‘dating’ and sexual intimacy - na baba na.
Origin
From Hindi bābā.