1810.—"The female who attends a lady while she is dressing, etc., is called an Ayah."—Williamson, V. M. i. 337.
1826.—"The lieutenant's visits were now less frequent than usual; one day, however, he came ... and on leaving the house I observed him slip something, which I doubted not was money, into the hand of the Ayah, or serving woman, of Jane."—Pandurang Hari, 71; [ed. 1873, i. 99].
1842.—"Here (at Simla) there is a great preponderence of Mahometans. I am told that the guns produced absolute consternation, visible in their countenances. One Ayah threw herself upon the ground in an agony of despair.... I fired 42 guns for Ghuzni and Cabul; the 22nd (42nd?) gun—which announced that all was finished—was what overcame the Mahometans."—Lord Ellenborough, in Indian Administration 295. This stuff was written to the great Duke of Wellington!
1873.—"The white-robed ayah flits in and out of the tents, finding a home for our various possessions, and thither we soon retire."—Fraser's Mag., June, i. 99.
1879.—"He was exceedingly fond of his two children, and got for them servants; a man to cook their dinner, and an ayah to take care of them."—Miss Stokes, Indian Fairy Tales, 7.
B
BABA, s. This is the word usually applied in Anglo-Indian families, by both Europeans and natives, to the children—often in the plural form, bābā lōg (lōg = folk). The word is not used by the natives among themselves in the same way, at least not habitually: and it would seem as if our word baby had influenced the use. The word bābā is properly Turki = 'father'; sometimes used to a child as a term of endearment (or forming part of such a term, as in the P. Bābājān, 'Life of your Father'). Compare the Russian use of batushka. [Bābājī is a common form of address to a Faḳīr, usually a member of one of the Musulman sects. And hence it is used generally as a title of respect.]
[1685.—"A Letter from the Pettepolle Bobba."—Pringle, Diary, Fort St. Geo. iv. 92.]
1826.—"I reached the hut of a Gossein ... and reluctantly tapped at the wicket, calling, 'O Baba, O Maharaj.'"—Pandurang Hari [ed. 1873, i. 76].
[1880.—"While Sunny Baba is at large, and might at any time make a raid on Mamma, who is dozing over a novel on the spider chair near the mouth of the thermantidote, the Ayah and Bearer dare not leave their charge."—Aberigh-Mackay, Twenty-one Days, p. 94.]