baba

Meaning

Noun

1. father
2. bollard
3. saint
4. (slang) crime boss
5. (slang) penis, dick
6. roundabout

Adj

top-notch, high-quality, very good

Hyphenated as

ba‧ba

Pronounced as (IPA)

/bɑˈbɑ/

Etymology

From Ottoman Turkish بابا. First attested in 13th century. Nişanyan suggests the current word is a result of onomatopoeia found commonly in many languages. (In that respect, compare also papa and mama as translingual phenomena for father and mother.)
Cognate with
Southern Altai баабый (baabïy, “small baby”), папа (papa),
Kazakh баба (baba),
Bashkir баба (baba),
Uzbek bobo,
Uyghur بابا (baba), بوۋا (bowa),
Turkmen baba,
Azerbaijani baba (“grandfather”), etc.

Sentences

Bir baba dokuz oğlu besler , dokuz oğul bir babayı beslemez .

A father feeds nine sons, nine sons do not feed a father.