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Unread 11-06-2017, 06:43 PM
Erik Olson Erik Olson is offline
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Speaking of which, this is the only Babooshka* I had known. In confirmation of the sense John gave, the OED:

babushka, n., [Russ., grandmother, f. baba (peasant) woman.]
1. In Russia: a grandmother. More generally: an elderly Russian woman. Also as a form of address.
1834 tr. M. N. Zagoskin Young Muscovite I tell thee what, Babushka! I have no time to waste with thee in idle words. 1887 N. H. Dole tr. Tolstoy Iván Ilyitch & Other Stories Let him go, babushka; forgive him, for Christ’s sake. 1919 R. D. Power Under Bolshevik Reign of Terror How can you stay there while the babooshka is fainting? 1951 E. H. Erikson Childhood & Society The grandmother assumes that place in the boy’s life which women in Russia play traditionally for anybody’s children: the role of the babushka. 1980 B. Mason Solo You see the older woman at the back? My babushka, my mother's mother. 2005 Spectator Russia will become a nation of babushkas, unable to muster enough young soldiers to secure its borders or enough young families to secure its future.
2. A head covering folded diagonally and tied under the chin; a head-scarf.
1938 Chatelaine The babushka is a peasant-sort of hood you wear over your pretty curls. 1948 F. Brown Murder can be Fun She wore a greenish mottled babushka and stringy hair pushed out in front of it. 1959 Encounter A voile scarf tied babushka-style.

*According to Kate Bush, this song chronicles a wife’s desire to test her husband’s loyalty. For which she assumes the nom de plume of Babooshka and sends notes to her husband in the guise of a younger woman – what she fears is the opposite of how her husband currently sees her. The trap is set when, in her bitterness and paranoia, Babooshka arranges to meet her husband, who is attracted to the character that reminds him of his wife in earlier times. She thereby ruins the relationship thanks to her own paranoia.That the word ‘Babushka’ itself means ‘grandmother’ in Russian is something Bush ‘didn't realise at the time’. In the context of the song, however, Bush just ‘popped the name out, because it felt right’. She apparently picked the name from a fairy story when she was younger, before discovering its Russian meaning, and how ‘Babushka’ was a good name for the woman in the song.

Last edited by Erik Olson; 11-07-2017 at 02:16 AM.
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