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  1. babushka love

Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. n. A woman's head scarf, folded triangularly and worn tied under the chin.

Wiktionary

  1. n. An old woman.
  2. n. A woman’s headscarf, tied under the chin.
  3. n. Russian doll, matryoshka (mistranslation)

WordNet 3.0

  1. n. a woman's headscarf folded into a triangle and tied under the chin; worn by Russian peasant women

Etymologies

  1. From Russian бабушка (bábuška, "grandmother, granny"), diminutive of баба (bába, "old woman"). (Wiktionary)
  2. Russian, grandmother, diminutive of baba, old woman. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

Examples

  • “Father Tikhon would not confirm this relationship; church rules don't allow him to say whether a babushka is confessing to him, never mind Russia's president.”

    The Accidental Autocrat

  • “Many Russian grandmothers wear scarves on their heads-hence the odd porting of the word babushka in America to refer to a head scarf itself.”

    KZblog

  • “He called her babushka, or grandmother, as a sort of joke, although she wasn't much older than him.”

    APM: Garrison Keillor's The Writer's Almanac RSS Feed

  • “Do you think it could be a kind of babushka-scarf that was longer and tied under the back of the head—sort of what Jackie Onassis wore when she visited Capri?”

    Simon & Schuster: Women I Have Dressed (and Undressed!)

  • “And she said her grandmother, who was a-- "babushka" is the word for grandmother -- that it was like a magical event when babushka made this face cream.”

    Waking the Tempests: Ordinary Life in the New Russia

  • “As to the stereotypes, I think nobody can beat people from the msot advanced country in the world who sees all Russians in 'babushka's shawls dring vodka during year long winter!”

    Think Progress

  • “They take less care about their skin (and this is why they turn into a "babushka" at the age of 30, as one of my Italian friends said) than an average European (I noticed that, where a European tries to remove imperfections, a Ukrainian tends to hide the under a thick layer of makeup).”

    News on www.kyivpost.com

  • “A classic Ukrainian babushka with pinkish-blond hair in a red down comforter coat approached us with a formal nod.”

    Simon & Schuster: Welcome to My World

  • “Though she no longer had a hairdo that required gallons of Aqua Net and regular salon maintenance, she still tied a babushka under her chin before taking my car and fleeing.”

    Simon & Schuster: Arcane Circle

  • “Intro: "We can call this “the” Proactionary Principle so long as we realize that the underlying Principle is less like a sound bite than a set of nested Chinese boxes or Russian matroshka (babushka) dolls ...”

    The Proactionary Principle, Bryan Caplan | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty

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hypernyms (1)

Words that are more generic or abstract

  1. headscarf

same context (14)

Words that are found in similar contexts

  1. underfur
  2. head-rest
  1. pew-opener
  2. neckcloth
  1. trilby
  2. needlework
  1. soutane
  2. aye
  1. drugget
  2. hearthrug
  1. dress coat
  2. water-bottle
  1. sheik
  2. vestment

tags (1)

Free-form, user-generated categorization

  1. headwear

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Lists

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Comments

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  • johnmperry not to be confused with babouche, which is the other end of the body! Jul 21, 2008

  • bilby babooshka reflects an incorrect transference of stress to the second syllable. Jul 21, 2008

  • mialuthien This time, Wikipedia has it right. The correct Russian word for these dolls is матрёшка (matryoshka, sing.), and матрёшки (matryoshki, pl.). I had them when I was a kid. Jul 21, 2008

  • shevek Used to refer to the dolls, babushka is a misnomer. Jul 21, 2008

  • johnmperry also, sometimes babooshka Jul 21, 2008

  • johnmperry Those nesting wooden dolls one sees are often called babushka dolls. Wikipedia calls them Matryoshka dolls. Jul 21, 2008

  • bilby It's almost as cruel as making oil from babies. Jul 21, 2008

  • mialuthien How did babushka become a headwear? *is horrified* (Бабушка и дедушка = grandparents). Is there a dedushka garment as well? How do you wear a dedushka? Jul 21, 2008

  • bilby Masculine form is dyedushka. Jul 11, 2008

  • dgstone An elderly Russian woman, especially one that is a grandmother. Mar 16, 2008

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‘babushka’ has been looked up 2830 times, loved by 3 people, added to 27 lists, commented on 10 times, and has a Scrabble score of 19.