babuism

English

Etymology

From babu +‎ -ism.

Noun

babuism (countable and uncountable, plural babuisms)

1. A malapropism or other erroneous form produced by an Indian speaking English.
   • 1924, EM Forster, A Passage to India, Penguin, published 2005, page 60:

     They altered the idiom, but they could say whatever they wanted to say quickly; there were none of the babuisms ascribed to them up at the Club.

   • 1972, Samuel Ichiyé Hayakawa, Language in thought and action, page 239:

     Abandoning its original application, then, let us use "babu English," or "babuism," as a general term to mean discourse in which the speaker (or writer) throws around learned words he does not understand in order to create a favorable impression. Babuism probably has existed and will continue to exist in every culture in which there is a learned class of magicians, shamans, priests, teachers, and other professional verbalizers with big vocabularies.

   • 2006, Rimi B. Chatterjee, Empires of the Mind:

     This book, written 'with love' and based on Goffin's considerable experience as manager of first the Bombay Branch and then the whole India operation, was a spirited defence of Indian English as a legitimate form of the language, which, once it had thrown off its thrall to babuism, would take its place on the international stage.

Related terms

• babu English