baby – podictionary 108

although it is found in documents before the word babe, it is thought to have grown out of babe as a pet name. Each of these appear in the late 1300s

Baby is one of those words that got exported from English rather than as is usual, other way round.  French adopted bebe in 1793.

In English 150 years before babe or baby appeared there was baban which appeared first in an early document we have talked about before here on podictionary, the Ancrene Riwle.

Although many of the citations for early uses of the word baby and its precursors mention babies crying it is thought that baban evolved as a word from the non-crying sounds that babies make before they learn to talk.

The appearance of the next form, babe does involve crying.

It appeared first in a fun little story called Confessio Amantis.  This is a poem that deals with how love relates to the seven deadly sins and was written by John Gower, a contemporary of Chaucer. Gower claimed to have been paddling across the Thames River one day when he met the King (this would have been Richard II), who said “you should write a book” so he did.

In his book the babe is crying for good reason since its mother has just thrown herself on a sword and the  grandfather finds the babe all covered in blood—I told you it was a fun little story.

After baban and babe, baby finally was delivered.

The document of record here we have also talked about before; it’s called The vision of William concerning Piers Plowman and was also the first document to record the word spinster and the first to take note of that famous old bandit Robin Hood.

This podictionary episode is a revision of one from 2005. That first time round I included a citation from something called the Blegburn Dickshonary and I’ll include that again in a moment. But first I want to tell you that the Blegburn Dickshonary rides again.

This is a document from more than 100 years ago that 4 years ago I dug out and digitized. I had help in proofreading the thing from a number of podictionary listeners but then when I upgraded my podcast to include a better blog, the online version got lost.

I figured though that since a number of people put considerable effort into the thing I should really get it online again. So now there is a link to it at the website and here in this blog post.

I the audio portion of this episode I have Diana Rushton, the Local History Librarian for Blackburn in Lancashire, England reading the Blegburn Dickshonary entry for babby.

BABBY (baby) – This is a wonderful thing, an’ heaw mich wonderful depends on id number. Iv it’s th’ fost it’s a hangel; yo’ mezzer id an’ weigh id every Setterda’ neet, an book th’ perticklers deawn in a family Bible. An’ when id says “Daddy” an’ ” Mammy “—wey, yo’ wodn’d tek th’ Nash’nal Det for id. But iv it’s th’ duzzenth, it’s a little imp an’ id gets plenty o’ strap; aw Know o abeawt id, becos aw’ve hed ‘em—at leeast th’ wife hes, an’ it’s o th’ same.

Translation: Baby – This is a wonderful thing, and how wonderful depends on it’s number. If it’s the first it’s an angel; you measure it and weigh it every Saturday night, and write the particulars down in the family Bible. And when it says “Daddy” and “Mommy” – well, you wouldn’t take the National Debt for it. But if it’s your twelfth child, it’s a little imp and it gets plenty of strap; I know all about it, because I’ve had them – at least my wife has, and its all the same.

show less...