▪ I. bauble
(ˈbɔːb(ə)l)
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. n. 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 coloured the later use of these, in which ‘childish’ and ‘foolish’ are united.
If sense 1 has no connexion 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.
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.’
| 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. |
† 2. A child's plaything or toy. (Now obs., except as coloured by 3, 4). Forms: 4 babel, 5 babulle, 6 babyl, babell, 6–7 bable, 7–8 bawble, 7– bauble (first in Shakes. 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 Shakes. Tam. Shr. 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 M. 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 Shakes. 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 Shakes. 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, coloured 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 Shakes. 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 Shakes. 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, bauble coach, etc.
| 1606 Shakes. Tr. & Cr. i. iii. 35 How many shallow bauble Boates dare saile vpon her patient brest. 1790 Cowper Mothers's Pict. 50 Delighted with my bauble coach. 1873 Browning Red Cotton Night-Cap Country 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. |
▪ II. † ˈbauble, v. Obs.
[f. prec. n.]
intr. To trifle.
| 1608 R. Armin Nest Ninn. (1880) 50 That musically fret their time in idle baubling. |