# Here come rants, blah-blah (December mini-rants)

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/here-come-rants-blah-blah-december-mini-rants/1011012>\
**Category:** The BBQ Pit\
**Created:** [December 1, 2024, 5:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/here-come-rants-blah-blah-december-mini-rants/1011012 "2024-12-01T05:38:23Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 509

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**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\
**Post date:** [December 31, 2024, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/here-come-rants-blah-blah-december-mini-rants/1011012/509 "2024-12-31T23:27:28Z")

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> [@Atamasama](#):
>
> The term “baba” literally means “old woman” or “grandmother” in Slavic/Russian languages, and it’s usually a pejorative term. So you are 100% correct.

It’s not always pejorative, and depends on the culture. Sometimes “baba” can be a child’s affectionate term for a grandmother. But even in cultures where it has non-pejorative connotations, it can be made pejorative by putting an adjective like “old” in front of it. While this is technically redundant, linguistically it emphasizes the “old” part, so ends up with a similar connotation to the English “old hag” or “old bat”.

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