babushka
babushka Lexical Profile
babushka Game Scores & Validity
• noun
An elderly Russian or Eastern European woman, or a grandmother.
"Every Sunday, her babushka prepared a large pot of borscht and fresh bread for the entire family."
North American A woman's headscarf folded diagonally into a triangle and tied under the chin, worn traditionally by women in Russia and Eastern Europe.
"She tied a wool babushka tightly around her head to shield her ears from the freezing winter wind."
A traditional Russian wooden nesting doll (more accurately called a matryoshka) consisting of a hollow figure that opens to reveal smaller dolls fitted one inside another.
"The children lined up the painted babushka dolls across the mantelpiece from tallest to smallest."
Word Nuance & Usage
In Russian, the stress falls on the first syllable ('BAH-bush-kah') and the word strictly means 'grandmother' or 'elderly woman'; the meaning 'headscarf' is an English extension taken from the traditional attire of elderly Russian women.
• Nearby Words
Word Origin & Etymology
Borrowed in the 19th century from Russian 'babushka' (grandmother), an affectionate diminutive of 'baba' (old woman, married peasant woman), from Proto-Slavic '*baba'.