The Hindu Business Line : `Baby is a blank cheque made payable to the human race'

NAUGHTY as always, some celebrity wags are watching the waistline of Britney Spears, and speculating `baby on board', but Johnson & Johnson, and Wipro have a different `baby' on their boards' agenda. If the recent action of the Maharashtra FDA translates into real bite rather than remain a bark, these companies may have to abandon `baby' labels, and we may, after all, come to terms with fewer `baby' products on store shelves.

Baby is "a child or animal that is newly or recently born," defines Concise Oxford English Dictionary, though it is doubtful if manufacturers of baby oil would find an escape through the `animal' route. An extremely young child, especially infant, is what Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary says. Infant, however, is defined in the Food Standards Australia as "a person up to the age of 12 months." In India, you can infer the meaning of infant from the Infant Milk Substitutes, Feeding Bottles and Infant Foods Act, 1992. It defines `infant food' as "any food being marketed or otherwise represented as a complement to mother's milk to meet the growing nutritional needs of the infant after the age of four months."

Jaques speaks of `seven ages' in As You Like It, starting with "the infant, mewling and puking in the nurse's arms." Wikipedia explains that infant derives from Latin in-fans, meaning unable to speak. "It is commonly used as a slightly more formal word for `baby' (the youngest category of child). A newborn infant is known as a neonate (neonatal) after the final stage of gestation," adds the Free Encyclopedia.

Baby is "a very young child (birth to one year) who has not yet begun to walk or talk," defines http://dictionary.laborlawtalk.com. The word also means an unborn child who, as Sam Brownback said, can experience pain even more so than adults because "the baby has more pain receptors per square inch than at any other time in its life." Derogatorily, baby is a childish person who is very much dependent on others; and colloquially, it is one's project or responsibility, so you can talk of a task being your baby.

`Baby' is the youngest member of a group, even if he or she is old. In Much Ado About Nothing, Benedick says, "I can find out no rhyme to `lady' but `baby,' an innocent rhyme." But as slang `baby' refers to woman endearingly, take care. `Baby crops' are those harvested at an early stage of development, before complete maturity, as http://lookwayup.com explains. And, `to baby' is to treat with excessive indulgence.

Trace the `word history' on http://encarta.msn.com to learn that in Old English, `child' was in vogue, and that from about the 11th century "child began to extend its range to the slightly more mature age that it now covers". When `baby' came into English, in the 14th century, it meant `child'; gradually, the word came to mean infants too.

Baby, "1377, babi diminutive of baban (see babe)," informs www.etymonline.com. And, babe is "1393, short for baban (c.1230), which probably is imitative of baby talk, however in many languages the cognate word means `old woman' (cf. Russian babushka `grandmother,' from baba `peasant woman')." Indian baabhi too?

There're babes and babies in usage. Such as: Somebody is `babe in arms' if innocent and inexperienced; and `a babe in the woods' is one who trusts people too quickly. To `throw out the baby with the bathwater' is to reject something totally, both good and bad. You may be `left holding the baby' if left with the responsibility for something; Amy Heckerling sympathises with such people when saying, "Babies don't need fathers, but mothers do. Someone who is taking care of a baby needs to be taken care of." Wonder if men would ever change, for, as Natalie Wood rues, "The only time a woman really succeeds in changing a man is when he is a baby."

`Baby boom' happened after World War II when birth rate jumped in the UK and the US. Opposite is `baby bust'. `Baby boomers' were those born between 1945 and 1965. "Well, the big elephant in the whole system is the baby boomer generation that marches through like a herd of elephants. And we begin to retire in 2008," said Lindsey Graham. `Baby bond' has face value of less than $1,000. `Baby bonus', or child tax benefit, is a Canadian sop for parents to help them with bringing up children. "Government is like a baby," said Ronald Reagan. "An alimentary canal with a big appetite at one end and no sense of responsibility at the other."

`Baby talk' has a different vocabulary that adults too use to communicate. On this, Steven Wright has a prank to offer: "My friend has a baby. I'm recording all the noises he makes so later I can ask him what he meant." `Baby (or milk) teeth' precede the permanent ones. `Baby bouncer' is not a type of bowling, but the harness used for carrying babies. `To baby-sit' is to care for kids when parents are absent.

`Cry-baby' is one who cries a lot without good reason. `Test tube baby' is developed in the lab from an egg and a sperm, and placed in the mother to grow. A process that's different from conceiving a child; as much as "the difference between writing a book and being on television," Norman Mailer would say. `War baby' is a child conceived or born during war. `Baby blues' refers to postnatal depression experienced by some mothers. But `blue baby' is an infant born with cyanosis due to a congenital heart lesion, explains Dorland's Medical Dictionary. `Baby's tears' and `baby's breath' are plants.

`Baby grand' is a small grand piano. `Baby spot' is a spotlight of 500 watts or less. `Babies in the eyes' are the minute reflection that we see in the eyes of another, as in this quote of Thomas Heywood: "She clung about his neck, gave him ten kisses, toyed with his locks, looked babies in his eyes." As a street term, `baby' is marijuana, and to `baby-sit' is to guide someone through first drug experience, as www.addictions.org lists. `Babe' is drug used for detoxification, informs www.whitehousedrugpolicy.gov.

"An ugly baby is a very nasty object, and the prettiest is frightful when undressed," is a scornful quote of Queen Victoria. But, as Somerset Maugham said, "We have long passed the Victorian Era when asterisks were followed after a certain interval by a baby." Thus, we know that a baby is a blank cheque made payable to the human race, as Barbara Christine Seifert declared; and Winston Churchill agrees, "There is no finer investment for any community than putting milk into babies." Not just because "to heir is human," in the words of Dolores E. McGuire, but because a baby is god's opinion that the world should go on, as Carl Sandburg philosophised.

However, world opinion on whether on product labels `baby' should go on or go off is a different story.

ComingToTerms@TheHindu.co.in

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page

Stories in this Section
Squeeze the import power

West Bengal: The perception and reality

Nothing macho about forex reserves

Pumping up the infrastructure sector

Oil for greasing

`Baby is a blank cheque made payable to the human race'

New bank chairmen, thou shall and shalt not...

A welcome decision

Non-proliferation — a myth