a gate or court; Babel and Babylon, according to the Arabic (the gate of God), or from a word signifying confusion, Gen. xi. 9; Baab (the gate), a town in Syria; El-Baab (the gate), in the Sahara; Bab-el-Mandeb, Strait of (the gate of tears), so called by the Arabs from its dangerous navigation; Bab-el-estrecho (the gate of the narrow passage), the Arabic name for the Strait of Gibraltar. [Sidenote: BACH, BATCH (Teut.), BEC, BOEK (Scand.), but _bach_, by mutation _fach_ or _vach_, in Welsh names means small, little,] a brook; _e.g._ Snail-batch and Caldbeck (cold brook or swift brook); _snell_ in A.S. and Old English means active, sharp, quick; and in Scotland, as applied to the weather, it means sharp or severely cold; Crumbeck (crooked brook); Lauterbach (clear brook); Skurbeck (dividing brook); Griesbach and Sandbach (sandy brook); Gronenbach (green brook); Over-beck (upper); Reichenbach (rich); Marbeck (boundary); Schoenbach (beautiful brook); Beckford (the brook ford); Bacheim and Beckum (the dwelling at the brook); Beckermet (the meeting of brooks); Bickerstith (the station at the brook); Laubach and Laybach (the warm brook); but Laubach may also mean rich in leaves--_v._ ACH. Bec in Normandy is named from a brook that flows into the Risle: Birkbeck in Westmoreland (the birch-tree brook); Ansbach or Anspach (at the stream in Bavaria); Schwalbach (the swallow’s brook), in Nassau; Houlbec, in Normandy, Holbeck, in Lincoln and in Denmark (the brook in the hollow); Fulbeck (Lincoln) and Foulbec, in Normandy (muddy brook). [Sidenote: BAD (Teut.), BADD (Cym.-Cel.),] a bath or mineral spring; _e.g._ Baden, anc. _Thermæ-Austricæ_ (the Austrian warm springs); Baden-Baden, anc. _Civitas Aquenses Aurelia_ (the watering-place of Aurelius); Baden-bei-Wien (the baths near Vienna); Baden-ober (the upper baths); Franzens-bad (the bath of the Franks); Carlsbad or Kaiser-bad (the bath-town of the Emperor Charles IV. of Bohemia); Marien-bad, Lat. _Balneum Mariæ_ (the bath-town of the Virgin Mary); Wiesbaden, anc. _Fontes-Mattiaci_ (the baths or springs of the _Mattiaci_, dwellers on the meadow)--_v._ WIESE; Badborn (bath well); Wildbad (wild bath, _i.e._ not prepared by art), in the Black Forest; Slangenbad (the bath of snakes), so called from the number of snakes found in the mineral springs; Badsdorf (bath village), Bohemia. The Celtic name of the English city _Bath_ was _Caer-badon_, or _Bathan-ceaster_ (bath city or fortress); the Anglo-Saxons made it _Akeman-ceaster_ (the sick man’s camp), or _Aquæ Sulis_ (dedicated to a British divinity, Sulis, identified with Minerva). [Sidenote: BAGH (Ar. and Turc.),]