J.A.M. The Etymology of "Babe." In the latest English etymological dictionary, that by the Rev. W.W. Skeat, we read under the word _babe_, "Instead of _babe_ being formed from the infantine sound _ba_, it has been modified from _maqui_, probably by infantine influences. _Baby_ is a diminutive form." _Maqui_ is Early Welsh for _son_, and those to whom Mr. Skeat's modified _maqui_ seems absurd will be pleased to find its absurdity indicated, if not proved, by a Greek author of the sixth century. The following passage in the seventy-sixth section of Damascius's "Life of Isidorus" has escaped the notice of English etymologists generally: "Hermias had a son (the elder of his philosopher sons) by Ædesia, and one day, when the child was seven months old, Ædesia was playing with him, as mothers do, calling him _bábion_ and _paidíon_, speaking in diminutives. But Hermias overheard her, and was vexed, and censured these childish diminutives, pronouncing an articulate reprimand.... Now the Syrians, and especially those who dwell in Damascus, call newborn children, and even those that have passed the period of childhood, _bábia_, from the goddess _Babía_, whom they worship." What is _bábion_ but the English _baby_, what _bábia_ but the English _babies?_ We can hardly suppose that our English words are derived from Syriac words in use fourteen centuries ago, or that the latter were "modified from _maqui_" by "infantine" or other influences. We are therefore driven to the conclusion that they were alike "formed from the infantine sound _ba_," unless we accept Damascius's derivation from _Babía_. Unfortunately, we know no more concerning this goddess than did the learned John Selden, who, writing two hundred and twenty-odd years ago, "De Dis Syris," says, on page 296 of that work, "I cannot conjecture whether _Babía,_ who seems to have been reverenced among the Syrians as goddess of childhood and youth, is identical with the Syrian Venus or not, and I do not remember to have met with any mention of this deity except in Damascius's Life of Isidorus." Selden's memory was not at fault: the words _bábion, bábia_, and _Babía_ occur only in the passage above quoted. In the absence of other evidence than Damascius's own, we may well question whether he has not inverted the etymological relation between the goddess and the babies. Most divinities owe their names to the attributes or functions imputed to them by their worshippers. It seems, therefore, more probable that the Syrian protectress of babies owes her name to the _bábia_ than that they were called _bábia_ in her honor. If, however, we accept Damascius's theory of their relation, what forbids us to conjecture that the goddess's name was itself "formed from the infantine sound _ba_"? In any case, the little domestic scene between the priggish father and the dandling mother is amusing and instructive to parents as well as to etymologists. S.E.T. LITERATURE OF THE DAY.