[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Studies](https://indike.org/pramana/ins) › [Reference works](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference) › [Hobson-Jobson: A Glossary of Colloquial Anglo-Indian Words and Phrases, and of Kindred Terms, Etymological, Historical, Geographical and Discursive](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.yule-burnell-1886) › c10.679 # Hobson-Jobson: A Glossary of Colloquial Anglo-Indian Words and Phrases, and of Kindred Terms, Etymological, Historical, Geographical and Discursive c10.679 Hobson-Jobson: A Glossary of Colloquial Anglo-Indian Words and Phrases, and of Kindred Terms, Etymological, Historical, Geographical and Discursive c10.679 - **Language:** English ### [c10.679](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.yule-burnell-1886.c10.679) \*\*BABOO\*\*, s. Beng. and H. \*Bābū\* \[Skt. \*vapra\*, ‘a father’\]. Properly a term of respect attached to a name, like Master or Mr., and formerly in some parts of Hindustan applied to certain persons of distinction. Its application as a term of respect is now almost or altogether confined to Lower Bengal (though C. P. Brown states that it is also used in S. India for ‘Sir, My lord, your Honour’). In Bengal and elsewhere, among Anglo-Indians, it is often used with a slight savour of disparagement, as characterizing a superficially cultivated, but too often effeminate, Bengali. And from the extensive employment of the English offices, the word has come often to signify ‘a native clerk who writes English.’ - [Previous: c10.678](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.yule-burnell-1886.c10.678) - [Next: c10.680](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.yule-burnell-1886.c10.680) - [Up: c10](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.yule-burnell-1886.c10) --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.yule-burnell-1886.c10.679](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.reference.yule-burnell-1886.c10.679) · Pramāṇa