Everyday life

babushka

Russian babushka means 'grandmother', a pet form of baba 'old woman'. In American English it also became the headscarf Russian grandmothers wore — and the same baba, as Polish babka, gave Yiddish and New York the babka cake.

Weakest linkCertain

The road to English

From Proto-Slavic to Czech

From Proto-Slavic to Polish, Yiddish, American English

From English to American English

600 CEProto-Slavic

Hops are evenly spaced; labels show the year each form is first attested.

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