babu

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   South Asian, often historical in English: a respectful title or form of address for a man, commonly placed after a personal name

   The letter was addressed to Raman Babu in careful handwriting.

2. 2
   noun

   historical, colonial: an educated Indian gentleman or a clerk employed in British colonial administration

   The nineteenth-century account referred to the office clerk as a babu.

3. 3
   noun

   Indian English, often disapproving: a government official or bureaucrat, especially one regarded as obstructive

   Local newspapers blamed an unaccountable babu for delaying the permit.

Borrowed from Hindi babu, a respectful term for a father, elder, or gentleman that became a title for educated men and clerks. In colonial English it acquired classed and sometimes patronizing overtones. Baboo is a dated English spelling.

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