different between baby vs dragon

English

Etymology

From Middle English baby, babie (“baby”), a diminutive form of babe (“babe, baby”), equivalent to babe +? -y/-ie (“endearing and diminutive suffix”). Perhaps ultimately imitative of baby talk (compare babble).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) enPR: b?'b?, IPA^(key): /?be?bi/
• Rhymes: -e?bi

Noun

baby (plural babies)

1. A very young human, particularly from birth to a couple of years old or until walking is fully mastered.
2. Any very young animal, especially a vertebrate; many species have specific names for their babies, such as kittens for the babies of cats, puppies for the babies of dogs, and chicks for the babies of birds. See Category:Baby animals for more.
3. Unborn young; a fetus.

4. A person who is immature, infantile or feeble.

5. A person who is new to or inexperienced in something.

6. The lastborn of a family; the youngest sibling, irrespective of age.
7. A term of endearment used to refer to or address one's girlfriend, boyfriend or spouse.

8. (informal) A form of address to a man or a woman considered to be attractive.

9. A pet project or responsibility.
   • 1996, Orlando Figes, A People's Tragedy, Folio Society 2015, p. 902:

     Sovnarkom was Lenin's baby, it was where he focused all his energies […].

10. An affectionate term for anything.

11. (archaic) A small image of an infant; a doll.

Synonyms

• (young human being): babe, babby, babbie, infant, see also Thesaurus:baby
• (young animal): see Thesaurus:youngling
• (immature or infantile person): big baby
• (term of endearment): love, see also Thesaurus:sweetheart

Translations

See also

• gamete, zygote, morula, blastocyst, embryo, fetus

Adjective

baby (comparative babier or babyer, superlative babiest or babyest)

1. (of vegetables, etc.) Picked when small and immature (as in baby corn, baby potatoes).
2. Newest (overall, or in some group or state), most inexperienced.
   • 1894, Marion Harland, The Royal Road, Or, Taking Him at His Word, page 136:

     Mrs. Paull held out her hand to the babyest of the quartette, as they tiptoed up to the bed. “Lift her up, please, Marie!” she said, motioning to the place enclosed by her arm. When the rosy cheek touched hers upon the pillow, she asked ...

   • 1910, Marion Harland, Marion Harland's Autobiography: The Story of a Long Life, page 408:

     That evening, we grouped about the fire in the parlor, a wide circle that left room for the babyest of the party to disport themselves upon the rug, in the glow of the grate piled with cannel coal.

   • 2006, Marion Halligan, The Apricot Colonel, Allen & Unwin (?ISBN)

     Of when I was a baby editor. Very baby, it was actually a kind of work experience, I was still at university but I knew what I wanted. With a small independent publisher, good reputation, did some marvellous books, […]

   • 2020, Hannah Abigail Clarke, The Scapegracers, Erewhon (?ISBN), page 391:

     […] party for Halloween proper? Just the four of us and some goofy, spooky kids' movies, you know? Some cute pumpkin-shaped cupcakes? I could make my dog a little costume. He could be a baby witch. The babyest Scapegracer.” I blinked.

3. (in the comparative or superlative) Like or pertaining to a baby, in size or youth; small, young.
   • 1888, Monthly Packet, page 170:

     Spider. Here let us begin at the beginning, at the babyest of books for Edith's nursery.

   • 1894, Edith E. Cuthell, Two Little Children and Ching, page 107:

     She let it drop out of her sleeve, and it was two Chings — the dearest, littlest, babyest, tiny Chings — little balls of fur! And she ran away, and daddy's father picked them up, and put them in his pockets, and brought them home, […]

   • 1908, Marion Harland, Housekeeper's Guide and Family Physician, page 98:

     Lemon-juice for ink spots: Not many weeks ago the babyest member of our household - perhaps moved by a hereditary tendency toward ink - slinging - divided the contents of an ink bottle impartially between the tiles of the bath-room floor ...

   • 1908, Mary Findlater, Jane Helen Findlater, Crossriggs, page 25:

     "There's a babier baby than Mike," she said. "But you will see her to-morrow. Aren't we rich? Come in and see Matilda - you won't find her much changed. It's so absurd to see her with all these children."

   • 1936, United States. Congress. House. Committee on Military Affairs, To Promote the National Defense by Stengthening the Air Reserve, Hearings ..., on H.R. 4348, 12241, Feb 27, April 22, 1936, page 31:

     Now, we all believe in national defense, but we also believe in peacetime activity, and my personal idea about aviation is that it is still in its absolute “babyest” type of infancy, that it is nothing even approaching what it will be even 10 years [from now].

Further reading

• 1987, Raphael Sappan, The Rhetorical-logical Classification of Semantic Changes, volume 5, page 58:

  Baby. In its attributive uses, the word has the meaning 'small, tiny'. In the following sentence it is a metonym, still preserving its relation to the original meaning: “There is a babier baby than M.” (in the entry baby of the first volume of  […]

Verb

baby (third-person singular simple present babies, present participle babying, simple past and past participle babied)

1. (transitive) To coddle; to pamper somebody like an infant.
   • 1922, Sinclair Lewis, Babbitt, Chapter, [2]

     […] though he tried to be gruff and mature, he yielded to her and was glad to be babied.

   • 1944, Emily Carr, The House of All Sorts, "Friction," [3]

     Then the man effected measles and stayed off the job for six weeks, babying himself at home, though he lived just round the corner from my half-built house.

2. (transitive) To tend (something) with care; to be overly attentive to (something), fuss over.
   • 1967, "Mr. Mac and His Team," Time, 31 March, 1967, [4]

     In the past 27 years, "Mr. Mac," as he is known to his 46,000 teammates, has built and babied his McDonnell Co. from nothing into a $1 billion-a-year corporation.

   • 1912, Linda Craig, interviewed by Theresa Forte, "Tree and Twig farm — a treasure chest of heirloom tomatoes," Welland Tribune, 25 May, 2012, [5]

     I have grown them for years and although some years are better than others, I have always had loads of tomatoes by not babying them, going easy on the water, and fertilizing with compost in the planting hole.

Translations

Derived terms

Pages starting with “baby”.

Related terms

• babe

See also

• child
• infant
• toddler

References

Anagrams

• Abby

Danish

Etymology

Borrowed from English baby.

Noun

baby c (singular definite babyen, plural indefinite babyer)

1. A baby, an infant.
2. (slang) An attractive young female.

Inflection

Synonyms

• spædbarn

Derived terms

Dutch

Etymology

Borrowed from English baby.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?be?bi/
• Hyphenation: ba?by

Noun

baby m (plural baby's or babies, diminutive baby'tje n)

1. baby (infant)

   Synonym: zuigeling

Derived terms

• babyboom
• babyface
• babyfoon
• babykleding
• babykleren
• babyluier
• babypoeder
• babyshampoo

Finnish

Alternative forms

• beibi

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?bei?bi/, [?be?i?bi]
• IPA^(key): /?b?by/, [?b?by] (rare)

Noun

baby

1. baby (term of endearment)
2. baby (very young human)

Declension

This spelling should preferably be used in nominative only as it does not fit into any standard inflection scheme.

Synonyms

• (very young human) vauva
• (term of endearment) kulta

French

Etymology

From English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ba.bi/

Noun

baby m (plural babys)

1. table soccer, table football
2. baby, darling, sweetheart

Further reading

• “baby” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Interlingua

Noun

baby

1. baby

Synonyms

• bebe

Italian

Etymology

From English baby.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?be.bi/

Noun

baby m (invariable)

1. child, baby, neonate
2. a small shot of whisky
3. tripod for a film camera

Adjective

baby (invariant)

1. For use by young children
2. Very young

Lower Sorbian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?bab?/

Noun

baby

1. inflection of baba:
   1. genitive singular
   2. nominative/accusative plural

Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology

From English baby

Noun

baby m (definite singular babyen, indefinite plural babyer, definite plural babyene)

1. a baby

Synonyms

• spedbarn

Derived terms

• babymat
• babyolje

References

• “baby” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

Norwegian Nynorsk

Etymology

From English baby

Noun

baby m (definite singular babyen, indefinite plural babyar, definite plural babyane)

1. a baby

Synonyms

• spedbarn

Derived terms

• babymat
• babyolje

References

• “baby” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

Polish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?ba.b?/

Noun

baby f

1. inflection of baba:
   1. genitive singular
   2. nominative/accusative/vocative plural

Slovak

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [?babi]

Noun

baby

1. inflection of baba:
   1. genitive singular
   2. nominative/accusative plural

Spanish

Noun

baby m (plural babys)

1. baby

English

Pronunciation

• enPR: dr?g'?n, IPA^(key): /?d?æ??n/
• Rhymes: -æ??n

Etymology 1

From Middle English dragoun, borrowed from Old French dragon, from Latin drac?, drac?nem, from Ancient Greek ?????? (drák?n, “a serpent of huge size, a python, a dragon”), probably from ???????? (dérkomai, “I see clearly”). Doublet of Draco and dragoon.

Noun

dragon (plural dragons)

1. A legendary serpentine or reptilian creature.
   • For quotations using this term, see Citations:dragon.
   1. In Western mythology, a gigantic beast, typically reptilian with leathery bat-like wings, lion-like claws, scaly skin and a serpent-like body, often a monster with fiery breath.
      • c. 1900, Edith Nesbit, The Last of the Dragons:

        But as every well-brought-up prince was expected to kill a dragon, and rescue a princess, the dragons grew fewer and fewer till it was often quite hard for a princess to find a dragon to be rescued from.

   2. In Eastern mythology, a large, snake-like monster with the eyes of a hare, the horns of a stag and the claws of a tiger, usually beneficent.
      • 1913, Sax Rohmer, The Insidious Dr. Fu Manchu, chapter XIII:

        These tapestries were magnificently figured with golden dragons; and as the serpentine bodies gleamed and shimmered in the increasing radiance, each dragon, I thought, intertwined its glittering coils more closely with those of another.

2. An animal of various species that resemble a dragon in appearance:
   1. (obsolete) A very large snake; a python.
   2. Any of various agamid lizards of the genera Draco, Physignathus or Pogona.
   3. A Komodo dragon.
3. (astronomy, with definite article, often capitalized) The constellation Draco.
   • 1605, William Shakespeare, King Lear, Act I, Scene 2:

     My father compounded with my mother vnder the Dragons taile, and my nativity was vnder Vrsa Maior.

4. (derogatory) A fierce and unpleasant woman; a harridan.

   She’s a bit of a dragon.

5. (with definite article, often capitalized) The (historical) Chinese empire or the People's Republic of China.

   Napoleon already warned of the awakening of the Dragon.

6. (figuratively) Something very formidable or dangerous.
7. A type of playing-tile (red dragon, green dragon, white dragon) in the game of mahjong.
8. A luminous exhalation from marshy ground, seeming to move through the air like a winged serpent.
9. (military, historical) A short musket hooked to a swivel attached to a soldier's belt; so called from a representation of a dragon's head at the muzzle.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Fairholt to this entry?)

10. (computing, rare) A background process similar to a daemon.
    • 1995, Harley Hahn, The UNIX Companion (page 420)

      Daemons and Dragons. The print spooler is an example of a DAEMON, a program that executes in the background and provides a service […] Strictly speaking, a dragon is a daemon that is not invoked explicitly but is always there, waiting in the background […]
11. A variety of carrier pigeon.

Synonyms

• (legendary creature): drake, wyrm, wyvern, lindworm, afgod (heraldry, obsolete)
• (unpleasant woman): dragon lady, see also Thesaurus:shrew

Hypernyms

• (legendary creature): monster, serpent

Derived terms

Related terms

Descendants

• ? Bengali: ?????? (?ragôn)
• ? Japanese: ???? (doragon)
• ? Marathi: ?????? (?r?gan)
• ? Marshallese: t?r?ik?n
• ? Swahili: dragoni
• ? Tamil: ??????? (?ir?ka?)

Translations

See also

• basilisk
• Saint George
• serpent
• stoor worm/Stoor Worm
• zilant/Zilant

Further reading

• dragon in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.

Etymology 2

Derived from drag queen.

Noun

dragon (plural dragons)

1. (slang) A transvestite man, or more broadly a male-to-female transgender person.
   • May 2017 Michael Connelly shares excerpt from The Late Show

     Ballard felt her phone vibrate in her hand and turned away from the nurse. She saw a return text from Mendez. She read his answer out loud to Jenkins. “‘Ramona Ramone, dragon. Real name Ramón Gutierrez. Had him in here a couple weeks back. Priors longer than his pre-op dick.’ Nice way of putting it.” “Considering his own dimensions,” Jenkins said. Drag queens, cross-dressers, and transgenders were all generally referred to as dragons in vice. No distinctions were made. It wasn’t nice but it was accepted.

   • October 2017 Drag Star VIZIN is back with new single Blasting News

     My favorite part was probably the ‘de-dragging.’ Taking the Dragon off (that’s what I call her) is always my favorite. In all honesty, the entire experience was amazing and I wouldn’t change it for the world. Being felt up by Michael Silas wasn’t bad either...

   • December 2017 Miss Lawrence as Miss Bruce, "Climax" Star episode 21

     Yes. Butt shots. Everybody can't afford lipo and fat transfers. Especially dragons. So if they want to pay me top dollar to pump their ass up that's what I'm gonna do, and you've benefited from it.

Anagrams

• Dorgan, Gordan, gardon

Danish

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -o??n

Etymology 1

Noun

dragon c (singular definite dragonen, plural indefinite dragoner)

1. a dragoon (soldier of the mounted infantry)

Etymology 2

From Medieval Latin dragon, from Arabic ????????? (?ar??n), from Ancient Greek ?????????? (drakóntion).

Noun

dragon c (singular definite dragonen, plural indefinite dragoner)

1. (archaic) tarragon

   Synonym: esdragon

References

• “dragon” in Den Danske Ordbog

Dutch

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /dra????n/
• Hyphenation: dra?gon
• Rhymes: -?n

Etymology 1

Borrowed from Middle French dragon, from Arabic ????????? (?ar??n), from Ancient Greek ?????????? (drakóntion).

Noun

dragon m (uncountable)

1. The edible Mediterranean herb Artemisia dracunculus (tarragon), used as a salad spice
2. The plant Erysimum cheiranthoides

Synonyms

• (Erysium cheiranthoides):) steenraket

Etymology 2

Borrowed from French dragon.

Noun

dragon m (plural dragons, diminutive dragonnetje n)

1. A (French) dragoon

Hypernyms

• dragonder

French

Etymology

From Old French dragon, from Latin drac?nem, accusative of drac?, from Ancient Greek ?????? (drák?n). Doublet of drac.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /d?a.???/

Noun

dragon m (plural dragons, feminine dragonne)

1. a dragon, creature or person
2. a dragoon

Derived terms

Descendants

Further reading

• “dragon” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Anagrams

• gardon
• gronda

Middle English

Noun

dragon

1. Alternative form of dragoun
   • 1382, Wyclif's Bible, Daniel 14:26

     Therfor Daniel took pitch, and talow, and heeris, and sethide togidere; and he made gobetis, and yaf in to the mouth of the dragun; and the dragun was al to-brokun.

   • 1380-1399 — Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales, The Parson's Tale

     For God seith thus by Moyses: they shul been wasted with hunger, and the briddes of helle shul devouren hem with bitter deeth, and the galle of the dragon shal been hire drynke, and the venym of the dragon hire morsels.

Norman

Alternative forms

• dragoun (continental Normandy)

Etymology

From Old French dragon, from Latin drac?, drac?nem, from Ancient Greek ?????? (drák?n).

Pronunciation

Noun

dragon m (plural dragons)

1. (Jersey, Guernsey) dragon
2. (Jersey, Guernsey, nautical) flying jib

Norwegian Bokmål

Noun

dragon m (definite singular dragonen, indefinite plural dragoner, definite plural dragonene)

1. a dragoon (soldier of the mounted infantry)

References

• “dragon” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

Norwegian Nynorsk

Noun

dragon m (definite singular dragonen, indefinite plural dragonar, definite plural dragonane)

1. a dragoon (soldier of the mounted infantry)

References

• “dragon” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

Old Dutch

Etymology

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Verb

dragon

1. to behave
2. to acquire

Inflection

This verb needs an inflection-table template.

Descendants

• Middle Dutch: dr?gen
  • Dutch: dragen
  • Limburgish: drage
  • Zealandic: draege

Further reading

• “dragon”, in Oudnederlands Woordenboek, 2012

Old French

Alternative forms

• dragun (Anglo-Norman)

Etymology

From Latin drac?, drac?nem, from Ancient Greek ?????? (drák?n).

Noun

dragon m (oblique plural dragons, nominative singular dragons, nominative plural dragon)

1. dragon (mythical animal)

Descendants

• Middle French: dracon
  • French: dragon (see there for further descendants)
• Norman: dragon
• ? Middle English: dragoun, dragon, dragun, dragoune
  • English: dragon
    • ? Bengali: ?????? (?ragôn)
    • ? Japanese: ???? (doragon)
    • ? Marathi: ?????? (?r?gan)
    • ? Marshallese: t?r?ik?n
    • ? Swahili: dragoni
    • ? Tamil: ??????? (?ir?ka?)
  • Scots: draigon
• ? Old Irish: dragán
  • Irish: dragan
  • Manx: dragan

Old Spanish

Etymology

From Latin drac?nem, accusative of drac?, from Ancient Greek ?????? (drák?n).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [d?a??õn]

Noun

dragon m (plural dragones)

1. dragon
   • c. 1250: Alfonso X, Lapidario, f. 103r.

     Et e?to faz de?cédiédo ?obrella la uertud de fi?a de o?e cubierto duna ?auana. ¬ cauallero ?obre un dragó ¬ teniédo en ?u mano die?tra una láça.

     And it does this when over it descends the virtue of the figure of a man covered with a sheet, and a knight riding a dragon with a spear in his right hand.

   • Idem, f. 118v.

     Et es de la manera de las piedras ?eelladas. que los antigos gardauan. / Et presta pora echar los dragones. ¬ las ?irpientes. de los lugares.

     And it is akin to the sealed stones that the ancients kept. And it is good for expeling dragons and snakes from any place.

Descendants

• Spanish: drago, dragón
  • ? Tagalog: dragon
  • ? Waray-Waray: dragon

Old Welsh

Noun

dragon m

1. commander, war leader

Quotations

Related terms

• pendragon m

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from French dragon, from Latin drac?, drac?nem. Doublet of the inherited drac (“devil”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /dra??on/

Noun

dragon m (plural dragoni)

1. a dragon (mythical creature)
2. a flying lizard species (of the genera Draco, Physignathus or Pogona)
3. (astronomy, often capitalized, with definite articulation) Draco (constellation)
4. (military) a dragoon (horse soldier)

Declension

Synonyms

• (mythical creature): balaur

Related terms

• drac

References

• dragon in DEX online - Dic?ionare ale limbii române (Dictionaries of the Romanian language)

Swedish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /dra??u?n/

Noun

dragon c

1. a dragoon (soldier of the mounted infantry)
2. the perennial herb tarragon
3. leaves of that plant, used as seasoning

Declension

Related terms

• dragonregemente
• dragonättika
• dragonört

Descendants

• ? Finnish: rakuuna

References

• dragon in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)

Anagrams

• grodan