For forms see the senses. [Probably two original words are here blended: (1) OF. babel, also baubel ‘child’s toy, trinket, plaything’; whence also the dim. baubelet (Littré, s.v. babiole), beubelet (Godef.), adopted in Eng. at a very early date as BEAUBELET, q.v. The etymology of the F. is uncertain: it is very doubtful whether it can be connected with mod.F. babiole in same sense, which Littré thinks derived from a root bab-, appearing in L. babulus babbler, fool, It. babbeo, babbano silly, Pr. babau fool, and perh. in Eng. baby. (2) ME. babyll, babulle, bable, translated librilla, is evidently connected with ‘bablyn to waver or oscillate, librillare,’ ‘babelynge wavering, oscillatio, librillacio’; see BABBLE v. 5, BABBLING vbl. sb. 3, which has been suggested to be a frequentative derivative of bab or BOB v. It must, in any case, be distinct from the OF. word. But the ‘fool’s bauble’ (see sense 4) may, so far as evidence goes, be from either, according as it was named from its shape or its purpose, or may blend the two notions; it has certainly been associated phonetically and in idea with the ‘toy’ senses, and has probably colored the later use of these, in which ‘childish’ and ‘foolish’ are united.]
(If sense 1 has no connection with the ‘fool’s bauble,’ it would be better treated as a distinct word under main-form BABLE).
† 1. An instrument consisting of a stick with a mass of lead fixed or suspended at one end, used for weighing, and apparently for other purposes. Forms: babyll(e, babulle, 5–6 bable. Obs.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 20. Babulle or bable (v.r. babyll) librilla, pegma.
c. 1475. in Wright, Voc., 263/2. Babrilla [? Librilla], dong [? dog] babylle.
1483. Cath. Angl., 17. Babylle, pigma.
1570. Levins, Manip., /124. Bable, pegma.
The Catholicon explains Pegma, ‘baculus cum massa plumbi in summitate pendente, et, ut dicit Cornutus, tali baculo scenici ludebant.’ The Ortus Voc. explains Librilla, ‘instrumentum librandi, idem est percutiendi lapides in castra, i. mangonus, a bable, or a dogge malyote.’ It is not easy to say in which of these senses pegma and librilla corresponded to ‘bable.’
† 2. A child’s plaything or toy. (Now obs., except as colored by 3, 4). Forms: 4 babel, 5 babulle, 6 babyl, babell, 6–7 bable, 7–8 bawble, 7– bauble (first in Shaks. Folio 1623).
c. 1460. J. Russell, Bk. Nurture, in Babees Bk. (1868), 117. He þat no good can … He shalle neuer y-thryve, þerfore take to hym a babulle.
c. 1525. Skelton, Replyc., 175. Marked in your cradels To beare fagottes for babyls.
1590. Nashe, Pasquils Apol., 12. To beguile my argument as women do their children … when they giue them a bable to play withall.
1611. Cotgr., Poupée, a babie; a puppet or bable.
1652. Sectary Dissect., 24. Give the childe his bable before he cry.
1791. Cowper, Yardly Oak, 17. Thou wast a bauble once, a cup and ball, Which babes might play with.
1814. Southey, Roderick, XIX. 70. The little hand which there Played with the bauble.
3. A showy trinket or ornament such as would please a child, a piece of finery of little worth, a pretty trifle, a gewgaw. Forms as in 2.
c. 1320. Pol. Songs, 335. Nu nis no squier of pris … But if that he bere a babel and a long berd.
1581. J. Bell, Haddon’s Answ. Osor., 41 b. To abandone images out of Churches … to finde no want of any such paynted bables.
1584. R. W., Three Ladies Lond., in Hazl., Dodsl., VI. 276. Amber, jet, coral, crystal, and every such bable That is slight, pretty, and pleasant.
1596. Shaks., Tam. Shrew, IV. iii. 82. Paltrie cap … a bauble, a silken pie.
1621. Burton, Anat. Mel., II. iii. II. (1651), 315. Coats of armes … and such like bables.
1740. H. Walpole, Corr., I. 69. A little box of bawbles that I have bought for presents.
1740–61. Mrs. Delany, Life & Corr. (1861), III. 386. I send you enclosed what I am sure you will value above a Bath bauble,—the picture of a friend.
1802. Mar. Edgeworth, Moral T. (1816), I. iv. 18. Forester looked upon a watch as a useless bauble.
1803. Bristed, Pedest. Tour, I. 393. We treat women as if they were pretty idiots, little baubles.
1843. Lytton, Last Bar., I. iii. The knight’s baubles become the aldermans badges.
4. A baton or stick, surmounted by a fantastically carved head with asses’ ears, carried by the Court Fool or jester of former days as a mock emblem of office. Forms: 4 babulle, 5–6 babel, babyll, 6–7 bable, 7– bauble (first in Shaks. Folio 1623).
c. 1370[?]. K. Robt. Cysille, 161, in Hazl., E. P. P., I. 275. Thou art a fole, seyde the aungelle,… Thy babulle schalle be thy dygnyté.
1393. Gower, Conf., III. 224. The Kinges fole … That with his babel plaide.
1509. Barclay, Shyp of Folys (1874), I. 89. Such is a fole and well worthy a babyll.
1588. Shaks., Tit. A., V. i. 79. An Ideot holds his Bauble for a God.
1611. Cotgr., s.v. Fol, If all fooles bables bore, wood would be very deere.
1821. Scott, Kenilw., xxv. The licensed jester … brandished his bauble.
b. allusively.
1653. S. Mewce in Hatton Corr. (1878). [Cromwell] then comanded that bable to bee taken awaye.
a. 1676. Whitelocke, Mem. (Bute MS.). He bid one of his soldiers take away that fooles bable, the Mace.
† c. To deserve the bauble; to give (a person) the bauble: to make a fool of, befool. Obs.
1599. Broughton’s Lett., v. 17. Not sparing the holy fathers of the Church … but giuing some the bable … befooling the penner of the Creede.
1606. Day, Ile of Guls (1881), 107. If in any thing your wits deserue the bable, tis in that.
5. In various transf. or fig. senses (from 2, 3, colored by 4): a. A childish or foolish matter or affair; a piece of childish foolery.
1579. Fulke, Heskins’s Parl., 456. Their Agnus Dei, their graines of the Trinitie, and such other gaudes and bables.
1583. Golding, Calvin on Deut. cci. 628. A sort of pelting bables or ceremonies.
1613. Wither, Sat. Vanity, in Southey, Comm.-pl. Bk., Ser. II. (1849), 302. If the salt fall towards them at table, or any such like superstitious bable, Their mirth is spoil’d.
1671. True Non-Conf., Pref. To apologize for the seriousnesse that I have used in confuting such a trifling bable.
1838. Macaulay, in Trevelyan, Life (1876), II. i. 29. The Right Honourable before my name is a bauble.
† b. fig. A childish or foolish person, a silly trifler. Obs. (In quot. 1606 perh. = babbler.)
a. 1606. Sir J. Melvil, Diary, 37. I perceivit at annes yat I was bot an ignorant babble.
1604. Shaks., Oth., IV. i. 140. Thither comes the Bauble, and falls me thus about my neck.
1728. Morgan, Algiers, I. Pref. 17. Nor can I bring [the Coxcomb] in without an apology for interrupting my worthy Audience with a Bauble of his Nothingness.
† c. ‘A mere toy’; applied to a machine, etc., considered too small or weak for actual work. Obs.
1611. Shaks., Cymb., III. i. 27. His Shipping (Poore ignorant Baubles) … Like Egge-shels mou’d vpon their Surges.
1615. J. Taylor (Water P.), Seiges of Jerus., in Farr, S. P. (1848), 303. Jehovah with a puff was able To make ambitious Babel but a bable.
1748. Anson, Voy., II. iv. 168. It was impossible such a bawble as that could pass round Cape Horn.
d. A thing or article of no value, a paltry piece of rubbish.
1634. J. Taylor (Water P.), Gt. Eater Kent, 12. The Spanish potato he holds as a bable, and the Italian figge he esteemes as poyson.
1685. Temple, Gardening, Wks. 1731, I. 184. Of Figs … the White, the Blue, and the Tawny: The last is very small, bears ill, and I think but a Bawble.
1871. Macduff, Mem. Patmos, xiv. 195. Are all earthly joys, and honours, and pleasures a bauble, compared with … the splendours of immortality?
6. attrib. = ‘toy-,’ as in bauble boat, coach, etc.
1606. Shaks., Tr. & Cr., I. iii. 35. How many shallow bauble Boates dare saile vpon her patient brest.
1790. Cowper, Mother’s Pict., 50. Delighted with my bauble coach.
1873. Browning, Red Cott. Nt.-cap, 706. Yonder bauble world Of silvered glass.
7. Comb. bauble-bearer, a court-fool or jester. (The quot. may mean babble-bearer story teller.)
1535. Lyndesay, Sat. Three Estates, 2607. Thir babil-beirers and thir bairds.
