babusia
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Forms: form: babusias
Senses: examples: text: Ukrainian became the language of the poor, the ignorant, and the backward. In the meantime, Soviet Ukrainian leaders, mimicking [Mikhail] Gorbachev, were saying that their babusias (the diminutive form of babushkas, or grandmothers) spoke a quaint tongue, but that Homo sovieticus was a man above quaintness and folklore.
ref: 2000, Ania Savage, “Birth of an Independent Nation”, in Return to Ukraine (Eastern European Studies; 12), College Station, Tex.: Texas A&M University Press, →ISBN, page 177:
text: I took photographs from afar, unbeknownst to them, that I would later use for my painting. There was one exception—the subject of my first babusia painting “Quietude,” a woman I had met in my mother’s house in Ukraine, a friend of the family. […] The rest of my babusias were strangers whom I never met until I began painting them several years later.
ref: 2010 September, Tatijana Jacenkiw, “My Babusias: Companions on a personal journey”, in Our Life, volume LXVII, number 9, UNWLA, Inc., page 6, column 2:
text: Volodya, his government-appointed driver who usually ferries him across town without comment, has offered him coffee, poppyseed bulochky that some old babusias are selling inside the station and, in desperation to get Stefko to relax, his own pack of cigarettes.
ref: 2012 October, Ksenia Rychtycka, “Homecoming: Summer 1990”, in Crossing the Border: Stories, Johnson City, Tenn.: Little Creek Books, →ISBN, page 7:
text: While I fret over war play, legions of grandmothers witness invasions in real time. Today, it’s the babusias in Kyiv.
ref: 2022 February, Marg Heidebrecht, “Invading”, in Mosaic Through East-Facing Glass: A Collection of Personal Essays, Altona, Man.: FriesenPress, published 2024, →ISBN, page 77:
text: When I was growing up in Ukraine, every time I stayed at my grandmother’s house, we would go into her root cellar to pick something delicious for our next meal. She would open the creaky door and hold my hand because the steps were so steep that the slightest stumble could result in a major accident. By the third step, I could reach out my right arm and find the switch to a dim bulb that would illuminate my happy place: a magical culinary kingdom filled with rows of fermented vegetables, preserved fruits, radiant bottles of golden sunflower oil, and jugs of grandma’s homemade wine that she, my babusia, is so proud of.
ref: 2022 June 17, Anna Voloshyna, “How a root cellar saved my Ukrainian family when the war came”, in The Washington Post, Washington, D.C.: The Washington Post Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 30 Mar 2023:
text: Thank you so much to the staff of Extendicare Parkside who were family to mom/babusia throughout the last ten years of her life.
ref: 2022 October 1, Speers Funeral Chapel, “[Obituaries] DMYTRUSZEWSKI, Olga”, in National Post (Regina Leader-Post), Regina, Sask.: Postmedia, →ISSN, page NP6:
text: The market was located right next to the railway station and a lot of passengers had just gotten off the latest train. Many of them were babusias (old ladies) who wore colorful headscarves.
ref: 2023, Valeriya Goffe, “Uncle Stepan’s Store”, in Secrets We Keep, Adams Basin, N.Y.: The Wild Rose Press, Inc., published 2024, →ISBN, part I:
glosses: Alternative spelling of babusya (“Ukrainian grandmother”).