capital of Babylon, now a ruin near Hillah in Iraq, late 14c., from Late Latin, from Hebrew Babhel (Genesis xi), from Akkadian bab-ilu "Gate of God" (from bab "gate" + ilu "god"). The name is a translation of Sumerian Ka-dingir.

The meaning "a confused medley of sounds" (1520s) is from the biblical story of the Tower of Babel and the confusion of tongues (Genesis xi). The element bab figures in other place-names across the Middle East, such as Bab-el-Mandeb, the strait at the mouth of the Red Sea.

1991, from babe in the "attractive young woman" sense + ending from delicious.

late 14c., babi, "infant of either sex," diminutive of babe (q.v.) with -y (3).

The meaning "childish adult person" is from c. 1600. The sense of "youngest of a group" is by 1897. As a term of endearment for one's lover it is attested perhaps as early as 1839, certainly by 1901 (OED writes, "the degree of slanginess in the nineteenth-century examples is not easily determinable"); its popularity perhaps was boosted by baby vamp "a popular girl" (see vamp (n.2)), student slang from c. 1922.

The meaning "minute reflection of oneself seen in another's eyes" is from 1590s (compare pupil (n.2)). As an adjective by 1750. Baby food is from 1833. Baby blues for "blue eyes" recorded by 1892, perhaps for the reduplication as well as the fact that more infants have blue eyes than keep the color (the phrase also was used for "postpartum depression" 1950s-60s).

To empty the baby out with the bath (water) is attested by 1909 (in G.B. Shaw; compare German das Kind mit dem Bade ausschütten, attested from 17c.). A baby's breath was noted for sweet smell, which also was supposed to attract cats, hence baby's breath as the name of a type of flower, attested from 1897.

French bébé (19c.) is said to be from English, but there were similar words in the same sense in French dialects.

"to treat like a baby," 1742, from baby (n.). Related: Babied; babying.

"make childish," 1862, from babe + -ify. Related: Babified.

religious and social system founded in 19c. Persia, 1850; see Baha'i.

type of old world ape, c. 1400, babewyn, earlier "a grotesque figure used in architecture or decoration" (early 14c.), from French babouin "baboon," from Old French baboin "ape," earlier "simpleton, dimwit, fool" (13c.), also "gaping figure (such as a gargoyle)," so perhaps from Old French baboue "grimacing;" or perhaps it is imitative of an ape's babbling speech-like cries. Also see -oon.

German Pavian "baboon" is from Dutch baviaan, from Middle Dutch baubijn, a borrowing of the Old French word. Century Dictionary says Arabic maimun probably is from the European words.

also baboosh, 1690s, from French babouche, from Arabic babush, from Persian paposh "a slipper," from pa "foot" (related to Avestan pad-, from PIE root *ped- "foot") + posh "covering." Arabic, lacking a -p-, regularly converts -p- in foreign words to -b-.

also baboo, 1782, Anglo-Indian, "native clerk (originally in Bengal) who writes English," from Hindi babu, title of respect, perhaps originally "father."

In Bengal and elsewhere, among Anglo-Indians, it is often used with a slight savour of disparagement, as characterizing a superficially cultivated, but too often effeminate, Bengali. [Yule and Burnell, "Hobson-Jobson," 1886]

In reference to "the ornate and somewhat unidiomatic English of an Indian who has learnt the language principally from books" [OED] from 1878.

type of head covering for women, 1938, from Russian babushka "grandmother" (see babe).