baby

baby
   This vocative is occasionally addressed to a real baby, an infant too young to speak. ‘We know papa better, don’t we, baby?’ says the wife of the narrator, in The Newcomes, by William Thackeray. He adds: ‘Here my wife kisses the infant Pendennis with great effusion.’ A young girl similarly addresses a baby in Jennifer, by Janet Whitney. To an older child, or an adult, the use of ‘baby’ can imply childish behaviour. Children, especially, are likely to be very upset if called ‘baby’, ‘crybaby’, or similar terms. In The Trumpet Major, by Thomas Hardy, ‘you jealous baby’ is said scornfully by one woman to another. ‘Baby’ is also used in a friendly or intimate way to adults, usually to someone of the opposite sex to the speaker. ‘Listen, baby’, says a man to a woman acquaintance in World So Wide, by Sinclair Lewis, ‘I hate this formality among us Yanks, even when we’re in Europe. I wish you’d call me Lorenzo, or maybe Larry. I’m certainly going to call you Livy.’ A possible reaction to such usage is seen in Thanksgiving, by Robert Jordan: ‘Be reasonable, baby,’ ‘Don’t call me baby. I’m not your baby’; this is a woman reacting to the term. In Malcolm Bradbury’s Eating People Is Wrong a woman says to a man
   ‘Fasten me up at the back, my baby’, causing him to think: ‘My baby’, there it was again, as always. Treece was the sort of man that people always wanted to mother, or father: indeed, as someone had once said of him in the old bohemian days in London: ‘Some men go around leaving illegitimate children; Stuart leaves illegitimate parents,’ Other intimate uses of ‘my baby’ or ‘poor baby’ occur in An Error of Judgement, by Pamela Hansford Johnson and The Sophomore, by Barry Spacks. These once again occur between the sexes, whereas ‘Baby, you got to’ is addressed to a man by a man in An American Dream, by Norman Mailer. The present author has also been addressed as ‘baby’ by a man, an English journalist who used the term to address almost everyone. Such usage is friendly rather than intimate, on a par with the working man’s use of ‘baby’ to a passing woman. This could be heard in Britain, but would tend to be an imitation of American usage. There is a special use of ‘Baby’ in Tender is the Night, by F.Scott Fitzgerald. Nicole’s sister is named Beth, ‘but she’s always been called Baby’. War Brides, by Lois Battle, has the interesting ‘baby’ + first name, addressed to a tiny baby: ‘He’s been a cranky little dickens, haven’t oo, baby Joe?’

A dictionary of epithets and terms of address . . 2015.

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  • baby — baby …   Dictionnaire des rimes

  • baby — [ babi; bebi ] n. m. • 1841; mot angl. 1 ♦ Vx Bébé. Des babys ou des babies. 2 ♦ Adj. inv. (v. 1950) Mod. Pour les bébés, d une taille inférieure à la moyenne. Taille baby. Un baby scotch ou plus cour. un baby : demi scotch servi dans un café, un …   Encyclopédie Universelle

  • Baby M — (born March 27, 1986) was the pseudonym used In re Baby M, 537 A.2d 1227, 109 N.J. 396 (N.J. 02/03/1988) for the infant named Sara Elizabeth Whitehead at her birth, and later named Melissa Stern by her father and adoptive mother. In re Baby M is… …   Wikipedia

  • Baby K — was born in an anencephalic state on October 13, 1992, at Fairfax Hospital in Virginia. That is, she was born missing almost all of her brain. In fact, all that remained of her brain was the brainstem, that primitive part of the brain responsible …   Wikipedia

  • Baby — bezeichnet: ein Kind im ersten Lebensjahr, siehe Säugling Baby (Batterie), Batterie /Akku Größe Baby (Lied), Lied der Sängerin Brandy (1995) Baby (Film), deutsch niederländischer Film von Philipp Stölzl (2002) Baby (Seine et Marne), französische… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Baby V.O.X — 베이비복스 Pays d’origine Corée Activité principale interprète Genre musical Kpop Années d activité 1997 2004 Labels DR Music Site officiel …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Baby — Saltar a navegación, búsqueda Baby puede referirse a: Lugares Baby, comuna del departamento francés de Sena y Marne. Personas Brian Baby Williams, rapero estadounidense. Sonia Baby, actriz porno española. Personajes de ficción Baby, personaje de… …   Wikipedia Español

  • Baby By Me — Saltar a navegación, búsqueda «Baby By Me» Sencillo de 50 Cent featuring Ne Yo del álbum Before I Self Destruct Publicación 10 de septiembre de 2009 Formato …   Wikipedia Español

  • Baby D — Saltar a navegación, búsqueda Baby D (nacido como David B.) es un rapero underground de Atlanta, que solo tenía 16 años cuando sacó su primer álbum, Off da Chain, publicado en 2000 en Big Oomp Records. Dos años después, su segundo trabajo, Lil… …   Wikipedia Español

  • Baby — Sn Säugling std. (19. Jh.) Entlehnung. Entlehnt aus ne. baby, einer Koseform zu ne. babe, das sicher ein Lallwort ist (pappeln, babbeln). Die Entlehnung dieses Wortes ist wohl durch das Prestige englischer Kindermädchen zur Zeit der Entlehnung… …   Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen sprache

  • baby — ► NOUN (pl. babies) 1) a child or animal that is newly or recently born. 2) a timid or childish person. 3) informal a person with whom one is having a romantic relationship. 4) (one s baby) one s particular responsibility, achievement, or concern …   English terms dictionary

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