See babu in All languages combined, or Wiktionary
{
"derived": [
{
"_dis1": "0 0 0",
"word": "babudom"
},
{
"_dis1": "0 0 0",
"word": "babu English"
},
{
"_dis1": "0 0 0",
"word": "babuism"
},
{
"_dis1": "0 0 0",
"word": "babuji"
}
],
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{
"args": {
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"2": ":bor",
"3": "hi:बाबू<id:babu>",
"id": "father",
"nodot": "1",
"text": ":pra-pro"
},
"expansion": "[Appendix:Glossary#loanword|Borrowed]] from\", \"terms\" : [ { \"id\" : \"babu\", \"children\" : [ { \"terms\" : [ { \"alt\" : \"*बाब्ब\", \"children\" : [ ], \"lang_name\" : \"Proto-New Indo-Aryan\", \"term\" : \"*𑀩𑀸𑀩𑁆𑀩\", \"status\" : \"ok\", \"lang\" : \"pra-pro\" } ], \"keyword_label\" : \"Inherited from\", \"keyword\" : \"inherited\" } ], \"status\" : \"ok\", \"lang_name\" : \"Hindi\", \"term\" : \"बाबू\", \"lang\" : \"hi\" } ], \"keyword\" : \"bor\" } ], \"status\" : \"ok\", \"lang_name\" : \"English\", \"term\" : \"babu\", \"lang\" : \"en\" }\" data-id=\"father\" data-lang=\"en\" data-title=\"babu\" id=\"English:_father\">\nBorrowed from Hindi बाबू (bābū), from Proto-New Indo-Aryan *बाब्ब (bābba)",
"name": "ety"
},
{
"args": {
"1": "en",
"title": "imitative"
},
"expansion": "imitative",
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"etymology_text": "Borrowed from Hindi बाबू (bābū), from Proto-New Indo-Aryan *बाब्ब (bābba), imitative of baby talk.",
"forms": [
{
"form": "babus",
"tags": [
"plural"
]
},
{
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"archaic"
]
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"pos": "noun",
"senses": [
{
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{
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"references": []
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],
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"parents": [],
"source": "w"
},
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},
{
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"kind": "other",
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"parents": [],
"source": "w+disamb"
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{
"_dis": "59 24 17",
"kind": "other",
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"parents": [],
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{
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"parents": [],
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{
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{
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"parents": [],
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{
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"source": "w+disamb"
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{
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{
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21
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],
"ref": "1989, Amitav Ghosh, Shadow Lines:",
"text": "I could see Kana-babu’s sweet-shop at the end of their lane with absolute clarity.",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"A Hindu title of respect, equivalent to Mr., usually appended to the surname of a Hindu man."
],
"id": "en-babu-en-noun-FGHF5NKw",
"links": [
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"Hindu",
"Hindu#English"
],
[
"Mr.",
"Mr.#English"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(Hinglish, North India) A Hindu title of respect, equivalent to Mr., usually appended to the surname of a Hindu man."
],
"tags": [
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]
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{
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"references": []
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4,
8
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],
"ref": "1888, Rudyard Kipling, “His Chance in Life”, in Plain Tales from the Hills, Folio, published 2005, page 57:",
"text": "The Babu put on his cap and quietly dropped out of the window",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
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[
7,
12
]
],
"ref": "1934 October, George Orwell [pseudonym; Eric Arthur Blair], “Chapter 2”, in Burmese Days, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, Publishers, →OCLC:",
"text": "Office babus are the real rulers of this country now. Our number's up. Best thing we can do is to shut up shop and let 'em stew in their own juice.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
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],
"ref": "2014, James Lambert, “Diachronic stability in Indian English lexis”, in World Englishes, page 116:",
"text": "From the prevailing colonial perspective, the English of the babus was error-ridden and characterised by over-elaborate ornateness, and for these ‘transgressions’ it became the butt of native-speaker ridicule.",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"Originally, a Hindu gentleman employed to work as a clerk for the colonial administration; now, a clerk or low-ranking government official."
],
"id": "en-babu-en-noun-5kU3V9Hp",
"links": [
[
"gentleman",
"gentleman"
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[
"clerk",
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[
"colonial",
"colonial"
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[
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"administration"
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[
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"official"
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"(historical) Originally, a Hindu gentleman employed to work as a clerk for the colonial administration; now, a clerk or low-ranking government official."
],
"tags": [
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"historical"
]
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{
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"langcode": "en",
"name": "Social media",
"orig": "en:Social media",
"parents": [],
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{
"_dis": "31 22 47",
"kind": "other",
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"ref": "2025 July 10, @MehHarshil, X (Formerly Twitter):",
"text": "BBMP doesn’t have any elected representatives right now. So a babu has floated this tender to benefit his favourite businessmen.",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"an archetypical Indian bureaucrat, perceived as being corrupt, lazy or arrogant."
],
"id": "en-babu-en-noun-hVBFPn2n",
"links": [
[
"derogatory",
"derogatory"
],
[
"social media",
"social media"
],
[
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[
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[
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[
"lazy",
"lazy"
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[
"arrogant",
"arrogant"
]
],
"qualifier": "chiefly social media",
"raw_glosses": [
"(derogatory, chiefly social media) an archetypical Indian bureaucrat, perceived as being corrupt, lazy or arrogant."
],
"tags": [
"India",
"derogatory"
]
}
],
"sounds": [
{
"ipa": "/ˈbɑːbuː/"
},
{
"audio": "LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-babu.wav",
"mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/1/1b/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Vealhurl-babu.wav/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Vealhurl-babu.wav.mp3",
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"tags": [
"Southern-England"
]
}
],
"word": "babu"
}
{
"categories": [
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"English entries with etymology texts",
"English entries with etymon",
"English entries with incorrect language header",
"English lemmas",
"English nouns",
"English onomatopoeias",
"English terms borrowed from Hindi",
"English terms derived from Hindi",
"English terms derived from Proto-New Indo-Aryan",
"Indian English",
"Pages with 16 entries",
"Pages with entries",
"Pages with etymon"
],
"derived": [
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"word": "babudom"
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{
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},
{
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},
{
"word": "babuji"
}
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"id": "father",
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},
"expansion": "[Appendix:Glossary#loanword|Borrowed]] from\", \"terms\" : [ { \"id\" : \"babu\", \"children\" : [ { \"terms\" : [ { \"alt\" : \"*बाब्ब\", \"children\" : [ ], \"lang_name\" : \"Proto-New Indo-Aryan\", \"term\" : \"*𑀩𑀸𑀩𑁆𑀩\", \"status\" : \"ok\", \"lang\" : \"pra-pro\" } ], \"keyword_label\" : \"Inherited from\", \"keyword\" : \"inherited\" } ], \"status\" : \"ok\", \"lang_name\" : \"Hindi\", \"term\" : \"बाबू\", \"lang\" : \"hi\" } ], \"keyword\" : \"bor\" } ], \"status\" : \"ok\", \"lang_name\" : \"English\", \"term\" : \"babu\", \"lang\" : \"en\" }\" data-id=\"father\" data-lang=\"en\" data-title=\"babu\" id=\"English:_father\">\nBorrowed from Hindi बाबू (bābū), from Proto-New Indo-Aryan *बाब्ब (bābba)",
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{
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{
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"tags": [
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"type": "quotation"
}
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],
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"(Hinglish, North India) A Hindu title of respect, equivalent to Mr., usually appended to the surname of a Hindu man."
],
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"India",
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{
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"text": "The Babu put on his cap and quietly dropped out of the window",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
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[
7,
12
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],
"ref": "1934 October, George Orwell [pseudonym; Eric Arthur Blair], “Chapter 2”, in Burmese Days, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, Publishers, →OCLC:",
"text": "Office babus are the real rulers of this country now. Our number's up. Best thing we can do is to shut up shop and let 'em stew in their own juice.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"bold_text_offsets": [
[
61,
66
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],
"ref": "2014, James Lambert, “Diachronic stability in Indian English lexis”, in World Englishes, page 116:",
"text": "From the prevailing colonial perspective, the English of the babus was error-ridden and characterised by over-elaborate ornateness, and for these ‘transgressions’ it became the butt of native-speaker ridicule.",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
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"Originally, a Hindu gentleman employed to work as a clerk for the colonial administration; now, a clerk or low-ranking government official."
],
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[
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[
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"administration"
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[
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],
"raw_glosses": [
"(historical) Originally, a Hindu gentleman employed to work as a clerk for the colonial administration; now, a clerk or low-ranking government official."
],
"tags": [
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"historical"
]
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"ref": "2025 July 10, @MehHarshil, X (Formerly Twitter):",
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"type": "quotation"
}
],
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"an archetypical Indian bureaucrat, perceived as being corrupt, lazy or arrogant."
],
"links": [
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"derogatory"
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"social media",
"social media"
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"archetypical"
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[
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"lazy"
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"ipa": "/ˈbɑːbuː/"
},
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"tags": [
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"word": "babu"
}
Download raw JSONL data for babu meaning in English (5.7kB)
This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2026-09-06 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2026-09-02 using wiktextract (ccec6f1 and 4deed51). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.
If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.