babushki

English

Etymology

From Russian ба́бушки (bábuški).

Noun

babushki

1. plural of babushka
   • 1960, Harrison E[vans] Salisbury, To Moscow and Beyond: A Reporter’s Narrative, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, page 64:

     God knows how many babushki standing behind the shutters of their cottages had seen her.

   • 1971, Peter J[ohn] Wiles, “Is the Soviet Agricultural Plan for 1966–70 Reasonable?”, in The Prediction of Communist Economic Performance, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 332:

     Private plots are to be allowed to flourish, and a great many babushki will be replaced by machinery and permitted to retire.

   • 1995, Laurie Alberts, Goodnight Silky Sullivan, Columbia, Mo., London: University of Missouri Press, →ISBN, page 163:

     “So, two babushki are riding the electric train. One says, ‘Oi, there is so little rain this year the cucumbers are only this big.’ ” Alyosha holds up his palms, two inches apart. “ ‘Don’t worry, dear,’ the deaf babushka says, ‘the most important thing is that a man be good.’ ”

   • 2003, Ulbandus Review, page 181:

     Three babushki with huge brooms approach distressed with my tears, “Stop crying. No one likes to see a woman cry, you must stop. […]”

   • 2010, Byrna Barclay, “Pytor”, in The Forest Horses, Coteau Books, →ISBN, page 174:

     Two babushki huddle on a bench, tapestry bags between fat knees, and they shift to make room for him and Lena.

   • 2018, Tomas Matza, Shock Therapy: Psychology, Precarity, and Well-Being in Postsocialist Russia, Duke University Press, →ISBN:

     One day, after having been advised by two babushki on the metro that Aarno’s boots were on the wrong feet (this time, at least, they were not), Nicole and I joined our new friends, Irina and Vera, two children’s psychologists, with our cranky one-year-old.