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babushka

/bəˈbʊʃkə/
IPA guide

Other forms: babushkas

If you're Russian or Polish, your babushka is your grandmother. If she wears a scarf covering her hair and tied under her chin, you can call that a babushka too.

People from Slavic countries usually shorten babushka to address their grandmas as "Baba," "Babulya," or "Busia." In some cases, they might also refer to grandmotherly women in general as babushkas. From this "grandmother" meaning, the word also came to describe a headcovering that was once commonly worn by older ladies, especially in rural areas of Eastern Europe.

Definitions of babushka
  1. noun
    a woman's headscarf folded into a triangle and tied under the chin; worn by Russian peasant women
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    type of:
    headscarf
    a kerchief worn over the head and tied under the chin
  2. noun
    a Russian or Polish name for a grandmother or an elderly lady
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