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January 29, 2006
Vishy's Indian English Dictionary: baba suit
baba suit. /BAH·bah·soot/. A formal or festive suit worn by young boys, say in the tween segment and below. Several masculine-feminine word pairs in Hindi differ only in their final vowel -- feminine words end in -i and their masculine counterparts attach -a to the same stem. This technique is extended to the English word baby, assumed feminine because of the final -i, resulting in a synthetic masculine, baba. Note that baba, on its own, can independently refer to an old wise man. Indeed, several holy men of India have adopted the baba sobriquet, such as Sathya Sai Baba. However, the baba in baba suit takes only after the young boy sense. So next time you encounter the word BABA SUIT garishly painted on a store sign in India, don't go off thinking they're selling intact suits of sheep wool -- y'know "Baa baa black sheep ... and one for the little boy who lives down the lane".
Posted by Vishy at January 29, 2006 04:03 PM