Page:Dictionary of Slang, Jargon & Cant (1889) by Barrere & Leland.djvu/86

 (fenian). In the Fenian vocabulary this letter stands for a captain.

Bā (gypsy), brother, friend. This resembles the north-country bor, but is of Hindu origin.

Babblers (sport), ill-bred hounds; when the pack is questing the babblers frequently open without cause.

Babelo-dye, babalo-dye (gypsy), grandmother.

Babes (trade), the "small fry" or lower orders of "knock-out" men who are bought over by the larger dealers just previous to a sale coming off, and who for a few shillings retire altogether, or promise to make no biddings while the lot is held by any of the other party.

Baboo (Anglo-Indian), from the Bengali and Hindu Bābū, which is properly a term of respect, like Master or Mr. Its application in this sense is now confined to Lower Bengal, though C. P. Brown states that it is also used in Southern India for My Lord or Your Honour. In Bengal and elsewhere it is often used among Anglo-Indians with a slight savour of disparagement, as characterising a superficially cultivated but too often effeminate Bengali. From the extensive employment of the class to which the term was applied as a title, in the capacity of clerks in English offices, the word has come often to signify a native clerk who writes English.—Anglo-Indian Glossary.

Baboo-English (Anglo-Indian). This term is applied to the peculiar English which is rather written than spoken by the natives in India. It is difficult to describe, not being specially ungrammatical or faulty as regards orthography, and yet it is the drollest dialect of English known. It is most humorous when the writer has made himself familiar with, let us say Shakspeare and the Referee, the Bible and the "Slang Dictionary," Artemus Ward, Milton, Punch, and the "Polite Letter Writer," and then contrives to happily unite all their characteristics with most unexceptionable gravity and skill. It is said that a converted Baboo, wishing to combine devotion with kindly feeling, ended a letter to an English lady-patron, to whom he supplied meat, with this expression: "Your affectionate butcher, in Christ." Of late years many amusing specimens of Baboo-English have been collected and published. There is a work called "The Baboo and Other Tales," by Augustus Prinsep.