An Attempt To Date
Babylon
Apprentice Zachary
January 6, 2015
Background
Apprentice Zachary, through his own free will, is desirous of becoming an apprentice to a great occultist. The subject of the research was original to Apprentice Zachary. Place names often "moved" before the age of printing. We read in the Apocalypse, "Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen." and wonder why the repetition of the phrase "is fallen": What great city, we are compelled to ask, has fallen twice? This can only be Constantinople; it fell once during the crusades (1204) and the second time was in 1453.
Part the First
The Oxford English Dictionary has been consulted for the following research. Secondary sources are in red. Citations after the year 1800 are excluded.
Etymology: < classical Latin Babylōnius Babylonian n. Compare Anglo-Norman Babiloyn (14th cent. or earlier), Italian †babilonio (first half of the 14th cent.). In Old English apparently attested only in the translation of Orosius Hist., and usually belonging to the i -stem declension typical for ethnonyms (however, compare accusative plural Babylonias in quot. eOE2). The word was perhaps reborrowed in the 14th cent.
eOE tr. Orosius Hist. (BL Add.) ii. i. 38 Babylonie mid monigfealdum unryhtum & firenlustum mid heora cyninge buton ælcre hreowe libbende wæran.
eOE tr. Orosius Hist. (BL Add.) iii. xi. 78 Fratauernis hæfde Armenie; & Theleomommos hæfde Meþas; & Feucestas hæfde Babylonias [L. Babylonios].
▸a1387 J. Trevisa in tr. R. Higden Polychron. (St. John's Cambr.) (1871) III. 155 (MED), Cresus..halp þe Babilons [L. Babylonios]..and whanne þe Babilons were i-sesed, Cirus took Cresus.
a1425 (▸c1395) Bible (Wycliffite, L.V.) (Royal) (1850) Isa. xiii. 8 Gnawyngis and sorewis schulen holde Babiloyns; thei schulen haue sorewe, as they that trauelen of child.
a1500 Rev. Methodius in Publ. Mod. Lang. Assoc. Amer. (1918) 33 171 (MED), The fers babylons..ffowre ml. ȝere regnyd also.
Forms: OE Babilonie (plural), OE Babylonias (accusative plural), OE Babylonie...
Babylonian, n. and adj.
Forms: 15–16 Babilonian, 15– Babylonian, 16 Babalonian.
Etymology: < classical Latin Babylōnius of Babylon, Babylonian ( < ancient Greek Βαβυλώνιος < Βαβυλών (see Babylon n.2) + -ιος , suffix forming adjectives) + -an suffix. Compare Anglo-Norman and Middle French babilonien , Middle French, French babylonien (noun) native or inhabitant of ancient Babylon (c1300 or earlier in Anglo-Norman in an apparently isolated attestation, subsequently from 1546; rare before mid 18th cent.), the dialect of Akkadian spoken in ancient Babylon (1838), (adjective) of or belonging to ancient Babylon (1550). With use as noun compare earlier Babylon
n.1 With use as adjective compare earlier Babylonish adj.
A. n.
a. A native or inhabitant of the ancient city of Babylon (now in Iraq), or the ancient Babylonian Empire. hist.
1534 tr. L. Valla Treat. Donation vnto Syluester iv. sig. kiiiv, I suppose they dyd worshippe him for a god, euyn so as the Babylonians dyd worshippe another dragon.
?1542 Coverdale tr. Supplicacion vnto Kyng Ferdinandus To Rdr., Shame those wycked Babilonians & sedicious Coraites, that disturbe all ordinaunces of God.
1579 J. Jones Arte Preseruing Bodie & Soule i. xix. 37 The Assyrians and Babilonians boughte their wiues.., but after vsed mariages, regarding therewith their Prolataries, as the Spartanes didde them that begatte their men children.
1607 E. Topsell Hist. Fovre-footed Beastes 627 The Babilonians and the Alexandrians loued diuersity of colours in their garments.
1657 J. Smith Myst. Rhetorique 149 Thus in Joel 2. from 1. to the 12. ver. you have a most lively Rhetorical Prosopopoeical description of the terrible Army of the Babylonians.
a1727 I. Newton Chronol. Anc. Kingdoms Amended (1728) iii. 292 The two collateral Empires of the Babylonians and Medes.
1743 Gentleman's Mag. May 247/1 Some Time after the Deluge, the Babylonians put this invention in Practice.
b. An astrologer. rare (now hist.). With reference to the Babylonian development of astrology.
1677 R. Gilpin Dæmonol. Sacra ii. iv. 248 For from good Bishops..they are become incurable Babylonians.
The connect between Babylon and astrology is noticed as early as 1677.
†2. derogatory. A Roman Catholic; (occas.) the Roman Catholic Church. Obs. Chiefly with reference to Revelation 14–18. See Babylon n.2 1.
1603 H. Clapham Epist. vpon present Pestilence v. sig. B3, The sword of Romish Babilonians was prest to haue bene drawen within and without vs.
1644 J. Vicars Babylons Beautie 30 The Lord Jesus Christ, most graciously invites all his poore people (whom though mixed among the Romish Babylonians, he hath a purpose to save).
1765 ‘Rabby Shylock’ Jew Apologist ii. xii. 154 Usurping Nimrods, then s—d—m—tes, then Egyptian wizzards, and Abedons next, Incurable Babylonians, infine, Are popes epithets.
1797 R. Southey Lett. from Spain vi. 72 Here the Babylonian [= Roman Catholic priest] walks the street in full dress scarlet.
The Roman Church and Babylon are seen as similar entities.
3. †a. The Aramaic language. Obs. rare.
1684 tr. R. Simon Crit. Hist. Old Test. ii. xviii. 128 Thus they mix'd the Hebrew and Babylonian Language.
1789 G. Campbell in tr. Four Gospels II. Pref. 20 Calling the language they had adopted Chaldee, Babylonian, or even the language of Aram.
Aramaic and Babylon were thought to be the same language as late as 1684.
b. The dialect of Akkadian spoken by the inhabitants of the ancient Babylonian Empire. hist.
1870 G. C. Swayne Herodotus v. 78 It is in three languages—old Persian, Babylonian, and Scythian.
1888 A. H. Sayce Hittites ii. 23 At that time Babylonian was the international language.
1908 Jewish Q. Rev. 20 498 It is now established that Babylonian was the diplomatic language of the period.
1927 Times 19 May 13/5 The record was found engraven in three languages—Old Persian, Elamite, and Babylonian.
1987 C. B. F. Walker Cuneiform i. 16 Anything written in Babylonian or Assyrian can equally be said to be written in Akkadian.
1991 C. B. Boyer & U. C. Merzbach Hist. Math. (ed. 2) ii. 10 It was discovered that the Behistun Cliff carried a trilingual account of the victory of Darius over Cambyses, the inscriptions being in Persian, Elamitic and Babylonian.
Although the above citations are after the year 1800, we have included them because we learn (1) Babylonian is a dialect of Akkadian (1870) and (2) it was the international language(1888).
B. adj.
a. Of, from, or belonging to the ancient city of Babylon (now in Iraq), or the ancient Babylonian Empire. hist.
1553 J. Brende tr. Q. Curtius Rufus Hist. v. f. 58v, Laste in ordre came the Babilonian horsemen [L. equites Babylonii].
1588 J. de Frégeville Reformed Politicke 86 Cirus wrought great matters with smal power, but that came to passe because the same was the reuolution of the Babylonian Empire.
1623 J. Bingham tr. Xenophon Hist. 29 All set forward..imagining that by sun-set they should reach to Villages of the Babylonian Territorie.
1724 A. Collins Disc. Grounds Christian Relig. ii. vii. 206 It is not improbable..that some modern Samaritan compil'd it chiefly out of the different copies of the Palestinian and Babylonian Jews.
1793 J. Hely tr. R. O'Flaherty Ogygia II. iii. xxx. 89 There were seventy-two matricular Babylonian tongues.
NB- the previous quotes do not indicate where Babylon was located. The editors have presumed it is in present day Iraq.
b. Characteristic of Babylon or its inhabitants; spec. (a) huge, gigantic; (b) decadent, indulgent. Also: = Babelish adj. 2.
With the sense ‘huge, gigantic’, cf. Babel n. 3.
1617 in F. J. Furnivall Harrison's Descr. Eng. (1908) IV. 280 Many good Lawes have been made against this Babylonian confusion.
a1657 R. Lovelace Poems (1864) 201 A great cathedral in the sea, Under whose Babylonian walls A small thin frigot almshouse stalls?
1757 E. Kimber Juvenile Adventures of David Ranger i. 8 To compose her to rest a Babylonian confusion of sounds was heard.
†2. derogatory. Of, relating to, or belonging to the Roman Catholic Church; Roman Catholic. Obs. Chiefly with reference to Revelation 14–18. See Babylon n.2 1.
1567 G. Fenton tr. M. Bandello Certaine Tragicall Disc. f. 123, Thabuse of the babylonian or dyabolicall secte of Rome, appeares so plainely in their detestable trade of liuinge.
1637 G. Gillespie Dispute against Eng.-Popish Ceremonies ii. vii. 28 The Babylonian baggage of Antichristian Ceremonies.
1643 F. Cheynell Sions Memento 33 Let us have no more Babylonian Ministers, Priests, (so they would be called).
1705 R. Blackmore Eliza ii. 47 From adult'rous Rome's unclean Embraces flew. They Babylonian Sorceries abhor'd, No longer Bread, instead of God, ador'd.
1790 E. Burke Refl. Revol. in France 41 The confused jargon of their Babylonian pulpits.
Babylonian captivity n. the captivity of the Israelites in Babylon, lasting from their deportation by Nebuchadnezzar (c586 b.c.) until their release by Cyrus the Great (c539 b.c.); (hence allusively) the exile of the papacy from Rome to Avignon,1309–77.
[1535 Babylonical captivity [see Babylonical adj. 1]. ]
1592 H. Broughton Apol. in Briefe Assertions To Rdr. sig. Av, From the end of the Babylonian captiuitie, the first seauen must be reckoned: and the last hath in it our Lords death.
1786 E. Apthorp Disc. Prophecy II. 247 This antichristian policy was checked by the great schism, A.1378–1428, which followed the lxx years' residence of the Popes at Avignon, A. 1305–1377, and their return from their Babylonian Captivity.
The connection between Rome and the Babylon is made clear with the "Babylonian Captivity." This can be understood as (1) the Papacy was taken to Babylon (or Avignon) or (2) the captivity was of Babylon (the Papacy or Rome) in Avignon.
Babylonish, adj. (and n.)
Forms: OE Babilonisc, OE Babylonisc, lOE Babilonissc, 15 Babilonish, 15 Babylonishe... (Show More)
Etymology: < the name of Babylon (see Babylon n.2) + -ish suffix1. In later use perhaps after German babylonisch of, from, or relating to the ancient city of Babylon or to the ancient Babylonian Empire (1525; also †babilonisch). The specific use in sense 2 is apparently not paralleled in German. Compare later Babylonical adj., Babylonic adj., Babylonian adj. With sense 3 compare later Babelish adj. The word apparently became obsolete at the end of the Old English period and was re-formed in the 16th cent.
1. Of, from, or relating to the ancient city of Babylon (now in Iraq), or to the ancient Babylonian Empire (hist.). Also: resembling (that of) Babylon or Babylonia. In Old English also as n.
eOE tr. Orosius Hist. (BL Add.) ii. i. 36 Babylonisce þæt æreste [heafodrice] & Romane þæt siðmeste hie wæron swa fæder & sunu.
OE Ælfric Catholic Homilies: 1st Ser. (Royal) (1997) xxxvii. 503 On Cires dagum cyninges, wrehton þa babiloniscan þone witegan Danihel for þan ðe he towearp heora deofolgyld.
OE Ælfric Catholic Homilies: 2nd Ser. (Cambr. Gg.3.28) iv. 37 Se babilonisca cyning Nabochodonosor.
1535 Bible (Coverdale) Josh. vii. D, A costly Babilonish [Wycliffite reed] garment.
1577 J. Fit John Diamonde Most Precious sig. Ij, Achan the sonne of Zereth, stole and conuayed away a goodly Babilonish Garment.
1631 W. Lisle Faire Æthiopian v. 74 His name was Mitranes, Lieutenant vnto Lord Orondates; That had all Ægypt in his gouerning. Vnder the mightie Babylonish King.
1650 T. Fuller Pisgah-sight of Palestine i. x. 33 The Babylonish captivity did onely snuffe Iudah, for seventy years.
1738 J. Wesley Psalms cxxxvii, Fast by the Babylonish Tide..We dropt our weary Limbs.
1799 W. Hurd New Universal Hist. Rites (new ed.) App. 859/1 Babylon, once the capital of the Babylonish empire, has now no remains of if left.
†2. derogatory. Of, relating to, or belonging to the Roman Catholic Church; Roman Catholic. Obs. Chiefly with reference to Revelation 14–18. See Babylon n.2 1.
1570 J. Foxe Actes & Monumentes (rev. ed.) II. 1464/1 The poore man had his mony, and diuers laughed well therat: but so did not the babilonish Priestes.
1590 H. Barrow in H. Barrow & J. Greenwood Coll. Certain Lett. & Conf. i. 10 The Antichristian yoke of theis Babilonish Bishopps.
1642 J. Goodwin Anti-cavalierisme 32 They had lived under those Kings that were Babylonish, and had given their Kingdomes to the whore, and by whom Babylonisme had been countenanced and set up.
1646 J. Vicars Burning-bush not Consumed 183 Many Popish Books,..were laid up and kept till a due time to bee reduced into ashes by the fire, the best use that could bee made of such Roman Babylonish babyish fooleries.
1654 T. Gage Full Surv. Sion & Babylon (title-page), A clear Vindication of the..Parochial Ministers of England, from the..injurious nickname of Babylonish.
3. = Babelish adj. 2.
1591 H. Barrow Plaine Refut. Giffardes Bk. ii. 89 We blame & forsake these Babilonish confuse assemblies, where al sortes of prophane and wicked are gathered together without faith or order.
1663 S. Butler Hudibras: First Pt. i. i. 8 A Babylonish dialect, Which learned Pedants much affect.
Etymology: < the name of Babel (see Babel n.) + -ish suffix1. On the use in sense 1 compare discussion at Babel n.
†1. Of or belonging to Rome or the Roman Catholic Church (see Babel n. 4). Cf. Babylonish adj. 2. Obs. rare.
1610 H. Broughton Reuelation Holy Apocalyps (new ed.) xvii. 262 Babelish idolatrie of cursed Rome, that crucified Christ, and by the serpents biting pierced his footestepp and handes: and would naile fast all feete and handes, from walking in Gods wayes: and working in his trueth.
2. Resembling or characteristic of the confusion at Babel (see Babel n.); characterized by noisy disorder; (esp. of language) confused, incoherent.
1614 W. Camden Remaines (rev. ed.) 40 Brings the same..to a Babellish confusion.
1656 T. Blount Glossographia at Babel, Hence 'tis we use babelish for confused.
Forms: 15–16 Babell, 15– Babel, 18 Bawbel (Sc.). Also with lower-case initial.
Etymology: < Babel, the name of a city in ancient Babylonia (see note) < classical Latin Babel (Vulgate: Genesis 11:9, etc.) < Hebrew Bāḇel (see below). The senses of the English noun largely reflect the details of the biblical story of the building of the Tower of Babel and its various results (e.g. the confusion of languages, and the failure of the project), but were probably influenced early on by association with the (etymologically unrelated) babble n. and babble v.1 Compare French Babel confusion of opinions, confused discourse (1762; 1555 in an isolated attestation in Middle French in uncertain sense (perhaps ‘place characterized by pride’ or ‘place characterized by confusion’), in a pejorative context with reference to Rome). With the anti-Catholic uses in sense 4 compare the note at Babylon n.2 1.
Hebrew Bāḇel shows a borrowing of the Akkadian name of the city, bāb-ilim , lit. ‘the gate of the god’ (in later sources (from the 9th cent. b.c. onwards) also bāb-ili ‘the gate of the god’ and bāb-ilī ‘the gate of the gods’; in both of these compounds, the second element could be written with various inflectional endings). This in turn probably reflects a folk-etymological reapprehension (as if < Akkadian bāb gate (cognate with Hebrew bāb and Arabic bāb , in same sense) + ili god, cognate with the words for ‘god’ in other Semitic languages cited at Allah n.) of a place name of unknown origin, probably a borrowing from a substrate language. Compare the Sumerian name of the city of Babel, ká.dingir.ra, lit. ‘the gate of the god’, which probably shows a calque on the Akkadian name. In Genesis 11, Hebrew Bāḇel is folk-etymologically associated with Hebrew bālal ‘to confuse, confound’.
The name of the city and tower of Babel (with reference to the story from Genesis 11:1–9) is attested in English contexts from the Old English period onwards (also in Middle English as Babelle, and in Older Scots and early modern English as Babell):
OE Old Eng. Hexateuch: Gen. (Claud.) xi. 9 For ðam man nemde ða stowe Babel, for ðam ðar wæron todælede ealle spæce.
a1325 (▸c1250) Gen. & Exod. (1968) l. 671 Babel ðat tur bi-lef un-mad, Ðat folc is wide on lon sad.
▸a1382 Bible (Wycliffite, E.V.) (Bodl. 959) (1959) Gen. xi. 9 Þerfor was clepid þe name of it Babel [L. Babel], for þer was confoundid þe lypp of all erþ.
▸a1387 J. Trevisa tr. R. Higden Polychron. (St. John's Cambr.) (1869) II. 251 Þat place is i-cleped Babel, þat is to menynge schedynge [L. confusio]; for þere..þe longages..of þe bulders were i-schad and to schift.
c1450 Mandeville's Trav. (Coventry) (1973) l. 1319 (MED), In Babiloine, I telle you welle, There is þe toure of Babelle; In þe grete desert hit stant certein Bitwene Arabie and Macedoyn.
?a1475 (▸?a1425) tr. R. Higden Polychron. (Harl.) (1869) II. 251 God dispersede theyme rather leste thei scholde make dissencion amonge theyme selfe, whiche place was callede Babel [L. Babel], sowndenge ‘a confusion.’
a1530 (▸c1425) Andrew of Wyntoun Oryg. Cron. Scotl. (Royal) i. 879 A Towre of huge hycht Wes bygyt..That towre Babell callyde he.
1611 Bible (King James) Gen. xi. 9 Therefore is the name of it called Babel, because the Lord dyd there confounde the language of all the earth.
1731 J. Chapman Remarks Let. to Dr. Waterland 41 The variety of idioms now spoken can be no way possibly accounted for, without either approving the preadamite system, or allowing a formation of new languages at Babel.
1. A confused or discordant medley of sounds, esp. of voices; a hubbub, a din. Perh. influenced by babble n. 2 in later use.
a1529 J. Skelton Tunnyng of Elynour Rummyng in Certayne Bks. (?1545) 387 A clatterynge and a babell Of folys fylly.
a1665 J. Earle Char. Tavern (1675) 2 All with loud hooting and laughing confound the noise of Fidlers..; 'Tis a Babel of Voices.
1785 S. Felton Explanation Several Hogarth's Prints 41 It would be no very easy question to determine which of the many noises in this Babel of savage sounds would be the most tormenting.
2. A scene of noisy confusion; (also) a jumbled, disparate, or discordant collection of people or things.
1537 tr. Original & Sprynge all Sectes f. 60, Beholde..thys Babel or confusion, and compare with thys the Heythenysh and Turkysh secte..which goeth aboute, mommynge wyth so many visores.
1640 J. Fletcher & J. Shirley Night-walker ii. sig. D3, All the chambers Are a meere babell, or another bedlam.
1738 Swift Reasons Humbly offered in Polit. Tracts II. The whole Babel of Sectaries joined against the Church.
1798 P. Francis Let. 18 Sept. (1901) II. 432 As for silence the Abbaye of La Trappe is a mere Babel to this house.
3. A tall or imposing structure, often one (esp. in early use) which may collapse; also fig.
1554 Soveraigne Cordial sig. A.iiii, Worcke they neuer so crafteli, build they neuer so stronglie, yet shal their Babell fal down.
1593 G. Harvey Pierces Supererogation 177 The huge Gargantua of prose, and..the heauen-surmounting Babell of Ryme.
a1701 H. Maundrell Journey Aleppo to Jerusalem (1703) 16 What remains of this mighty Babel..is no more than twenty foot high.
1790 M. De Fleury Brit. Liberty Established i. 11 Heav'n puffs at their designs from his high throne, And, frowning, shakes their mighty Babels down.
4. derogatory. Rome, esp. as the seat of the Pope and the centre of authority of the Roman Catholic Church; (more generally) the Roman Catholic Church. Cf. Babylon n.2 1. Now rare.
1599 E. Spenser in L. Lewkenor tr. G. Contarini Commonw. & Gouernment Venice sig. ❧ 3v, The antique Babel, Empresse of the East, Vpreard her buildinges to the threatned skie: And Second Babell tyrant of the West, Her ayry Towers vpraised much more high.
1600 F. Hastings Apol. or Def. Watch-word 194 Your counterfaite Ward is too weake to keepe in safetie, and strength your Romish Babell or the Bishops thereof.
1723 I. Martin Tryal & Sufferings Ded., It may be of use, towards giving to those..who have not..seen the cruel effects of Popish Tyranny, a just abhorrence for the Spirit of Bigotry and Persecution, and for all the other Abominations of the Roman Babel.
5. An ambitious or unrealistic project; a visionary scheme, esp. one doomed to failure.
1600 C. Tourneur Transformed Metamorph. sig. B3v, Her [sc. Ambition's] high esteeme, is of high heau'n despisde; O see ere long her Babel Babelliz'd.
1605 G. Buck Δαϕνις Πολυστεϕανος xxvi. sig. E3v, Then comes his sonne with other architects (Not to build Babels and Castles in the ayre) But hee a holy house for God proiects.
1667 Milton Paradise Lost iii. 468 And still with vain designe New Babels, had they wherewithall, would build.
1711 R. Steele Spectator No. 167. ⁋3 The fond Builder of Babels.
1757 M. Postlethwayt Great Britain's True Syst. ix. 212 Certain it is that this Babel of Paper-Credit must have its Fall.
Compounds
C1. attrib., with the sense ‘resembling or reminiscent of that at Babel’ (see the etymology). In some quots. passing into adjectival use.
Babel confusion n.
1653 R. Baxter Christian Concord 101 Sion is not built by the Babel-confusions.
1731 J. Chapman Remarks Let. to Dr. Waterland 33 What a ridiculous Figure would Gesner or Scaliger or Bochart have made in Chronology, and Critique, if they had refer'd the French, Italian, English and many other Tongues to the Babel-Confusion!
Babel sound n.
1710 E. Settle Thalia Lacrimans 13 Ay, there's true felt Grief: That Babel Sound Does all the Languages of Joy confound..
Babel tower n.
1588 E. B. in D. Archdeacon tr. True Disc. Armie King of Spaine Ep. to Rdr. 8 The Spanishe king..hath by hys ships, made like Babel towers, vaunted himselfe to make vs afrayd.
1603 J. Davies Microcosmos 208 Vp goe his Babell-Towres of Pompe and Pride, That to the High'st he may next neighbour be.
1772 J. Spencer Hermas II. xii. 165 All transient views, fame, learning, riches, power, Sink to their base, or build a Babel Tower.
Babel builder n. a person likened to a builder of the Tower of Babel, esp. in being arrogant or unrealistic.
1610 H. Broughton Reuelation Holy Apocalyps (new ed.) 142 Euery thing..being turned to seruice of Idolls grone in Gods estieme, as corrupted:..such were Babel builders, till heathen came to God.
c1746 J. Hervey Medit. (1818) 39 God from on high laughs at the Babel-builder.
Babel scheme n. now rare a project regarded as comparable to the building of the Tower of Babel, esp. in exhibiting arrogance.
1715 S. Asplin Sermon 15 To such a Pitch of Tyrannizing over every Thing, that look'd like Loyalty, and Conscience, and Conformity to the best Church and King in the World, did that execrable Monster Cromwell rear up his Babel Scheme.
1729 R. Savage Wanderer ii. v, The traitors rear their babel-schemes.
Derivatives
Babel-like adv. and adj.
1630 J. Taylor All Wks. 114/2 The tongues confusion in our braue Exchange Shall Babell like declare thy story strange.
1642 Anat. of Separatists 3 They frame a long Babel-like prayer, made up with hums and hawes.
1732 W. Holmes Plain Reasons against joining with Nonsubscribers 9 What kind of Babel-like confusion should this make?
Babylon, n.2
Forms: 15–16 Babilon, 15– Babylon, 19– Babylan (chiefly Caribbean).
Etymology: < the name of the city of Babylon ( < classical Latin Babylōn < ancient Greek Βαβυλών < Hebrew Bāḇel : see Babel n.). Corresponding forms of the name of the city are also attested in other European languages (also in similar transferred uses), e.g. Middle French Babilone, Babillone (a1400; French Babylone), Spanish †Babilon (15th cent.), Middle Dutch Babilone (Dutch Babylon), German Babylon (early 16th cent. or earlier). Compare also ( < classical Latin Babylōnia) Anglo-Norman Babeloine, Anglo-Norman and Middle French Babiloine, Babiloyne (first half of the 12th cent.; Middle French, French Babylonie), Spanish Babilonia (a1250), Italian Babilonia (second half of the 13th cent.; first half of the 13th cent. as †Babelonia; also †Babylonia), Middle Dutch Babilonie, Babylonie (Dutch Babylonië), all as names of the city of Babylon as well as of the ancient Babylonian Empire.
The ancient city of Babylon in Mesopotamia (modern Iraq), was the capital of the Babylonian or Chaldean Empire, and was renowned in antiquity for its magnificence. It was the site of the famous Hanging Gardens, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world; it is also thought to have been the original site of the biblical Tower of Babel. The captivity and exile of the Jews in Babylon in the 6th cent. B.C. at the height of the power of the Babylonian Empire under Nebuchadnezzar is an event of supreme significance in Jewish history, and underpins the symbolic description in the New Testament (Revelation 14–18) of ‘Babylon the Great’, a city of unparalleled worldliness.
Babylon and Babylonia occur as place names in English contexts from the Old English period onwards (in various forms; in quot. c1390 as the former name of a district of Old Cairo, also called Babylon the Less, site of a shrine of St Barbara and church of Our Lady):
OE Ælfric Catholic Homilies: 1st Ser. (Royal) (1997) xxxvii. 504 Abacuc, ber þone mete to Babylone & syle Danihele se þe sit on þæra leona seaðe.
OE Daniel 164 Ða hæfde Daniel dom micelne, blæd in Babilonia mid bocerum, siððan he gesæde swefen cyninge.
c1225 (▸?c1200) St. Margaret (Royal) 41 (MED), Babilones men..breken þat feat.
c1275 (▸?a1200) Laȝamon Brut (Calig.) (1978) l. 13810 He isæh i þan fihte enne ueond fusen, þat on admirail [c1300 Otho admurel], of Babiloine he wes ældere.
1340 Ayenbite (1866) 205 (MED), Þe children..weren y-borȝe ine þe fornayse of babyloyne.
c1390 (▸a1376) Langland Piers Plowman (Vernon) (1867) A. vi. 18 (MED), Bethleem and Babiloyne [c1400 C text Babilonie], I haue ben in boþe.
▸a1398 J. Trevisa tr. Bartholomaeus Anglicus De Proprietatibus Rerum (BL Add. 27944) (1975) II. xv. xxii. 738 Babilonia is a prouynce of Asia in Caldea, þe hede þereof is þe cite Babilon.
c1405 (▸c1390) Chaucer Man of Law's Prol. (Hengwrt) (2003) l. 63 Ther maystow seen the large woundes wyde Of Lucresse and of Babilan [c1410 Harl. 7334 Babiloun, c1430 Cambr. Gg.4.27 babiloyn] Tisbee.
c1450 King Ponthus (Digby) in Publ. Mod. Lang. Assoc. Amer. (1897) 12 1 (MED), In that tyme itt happened in the Est that the sawdeyn of Babilon was of gret power.
a1500 (▸?a1400) Stanzaic Life of Christ (Harl. 3909) (1926) l. 86 (MED), Peple of Israel home wer broght ffrom Babilony.
1572 T. Twyne tr. Dionysius Periegetes Surueye World sig. E v, Aboue Babylon towards the north, dwell a people called Cissi.
1654 Some Notes of Publishers in T. Jackson Exact Coll. Wks. 3137 He..travail'd through Ægypt, Babylonie, and Lacedæmon.
1701 M. Pix Double Distress i. 7 Now the haughty Medeans from Euphrates Banks And Babylon's exalted Towers, Have to Persepolis their bloody Standards rear'd.
Constantinople's famous tower was called the Great Tower.
1. derogatory. The city of Rome as the seat of the Pope and the centre of authority of the Roman Catholic Church; (more generally) the Roman Catholic Church, its institutions, practices, etc. Chiefly with reference to Revelation 14–18, which records the destruction of a great, but sinful, city named Babylon, taken by many commentators to symbolize the Roman Empire. Recorded earliest in the whore of Babylon at whore n. 2. Cf. also Lady of Babylon n. at lady n. Phrases 2b(a).
1530 Tyndale Pract. Prelates sig. Fvv, The greate baude the hore of babylon [sc. the Pope].
1549 Coverdale et al. tr. Erasmus Paraphr. Newe Test. II. 1 Pet. Argt. f. i, If any man allowe not the vnderstanding of Rome by Babylon.
1591 Troublesome Raigne Iohn ii. sig. E3, Treads downe the Strumpets pride, That sits vpon the chaire of Babylon.
1610 in M. C. Questier Newslett. Archpresbyterate G. Birkhead (1998) 84, I have..with my penne brought the popes quarrel upon me, and proclaimed publique defiance to Babylon in mainteyinge it.
1655 O. Cromwell Let. Oct. (1845) II. 193 That Roman Babylon, of which the Spaniard is the great underpropper.
1681 T. Barlow Let. 12 July in R. Boyle Corr. (2001) V. 260, I doe not doubt, but that Rome is mysticall Babylon, and the Pope that Beast, that Antichrist who rules there.
1766 T. Amory Life John Buncle II. iv. 107 So far from being a clear and necessary proof that the church of Rome is the body of Christ,..[Bellarmine's notes] proved it to be the Great Babylon, or that great enemy of God's church, which the apostles describe.
2. Any large and luxurious city; esp. one seen as decadent and corrupt (freq. depreciative). Cf. modern Babylon n. at modern adj. and n. Special uses 2.
1581 in J. Cranstoun Satirical Poems Reformation (1891) I. xliv. 39 Sik childrene hes he [sc. Satan] procreat to be Duellaris into his Babilon, Geneue.
1635 E. Rainbow Labour 41 Thy great Babilons which thou hast built.
1681 P. Rycaut tr. B. Gracián y Morales Critick 78 Such is the entrance we are now upon into this great City, the Babylon of Spain, the Treasury of Riches, the Theatre of Learning.
1790 W. Cowper Let. 8 June in Wks. (1836) VI. 311 You..will be secure against..temptations, to which..in such a Babylon as you must necessarily inhabit, you would otherwise have been exposed.
1795 Gentleman's Mag. Mar. 227 He concurs with the modern prophet in pronouncing London to be Babylon.
Part the Second
The above citations in chronological order and edited for space.
eOE tr. Orosius Hist. (BL Add.) ii. i. 36 Babylonisce þæt æreste [heafodrice] & Romane þæt siðmeste hie ...
eOE tr. Orosius Hist. (BL Add.) ii. i. 38 Babylonie mid monigfealdum unryhtum & firenlustum mid...
eOE tr. Orosius Hist. (BL Add.) iii. xi. 78 ...Theleomommos & Feucestas hæfde Babylonias [L. Babylonios].
OE Ælfric Catholic Homilies: 1st Ser. (Royal) (1997) xxxvii. 503 ...þa babiloniscan þone witegan Danihel for...
OE Ælfric Catholic Homilies: 1st Ser. (Royal) (1997) xxxvii. 504 ... to Babylone & syle Danihele se ...
OE Ælfric Catholic Homilies: 2nd Ser. (Cambr. Gg.3.28) iv. 37 Se babilonisca cyning Nabochodonosor.
OE Daniel 164 Ða hæfde Daniel dom micelne, blæd in Babilonia mid bocerum, siððan he gesæde swefen cyninge.
OE Old Eng. Hexateuch: Gen. (Claud.) xi. 9 For ðam man nemde ða stowe Babel, for ðam ðar wæron ...
1225c (▸?c1200) St. Margaret (Royal) 41 (MED), Babilones men..breken þat feat.
1275c (▸?a1200) Laȝamon Brut (Calig.) (1978) l. 13810 He isæh i þan fihte enne ueond fusen, þat on admirail [c1300 Otho admurel], of Babiloine he wes ældere.
1325a (▸c1250) Gen. & Exod. (1968) l. 671 Babel ðat tur bi-lef un-mad, Ðat folc is wide on lon sad.
1340 Ayenbite (1866) 205 (MED), Þe children..weren y-borȝe ine þe fornayse of babyloyne.
1382▸a Bible (Wycliffite, E.V.) (Bodl. 959) (1959) Gen. xi. 9 Þerfor was clepid þe name of it Babel [L. Babel], for þer was confoundid þe lypp of all erþ.
1387▸a J. Trevisa in tr. R. Higden Polychron. (St. John's Cambr.) (1871) III. 155 (MED), Cresus..halp þe Babilons [L. Babylonios]..and whanne þe Babilons were i-sesed, Cirus took Cresus.
1387▸a J. Trevisa tr. R. Higden Polychron. (St. John's Cambr.) (1869) II. 251 Þat place is i-cleped Babel, þat is to menynge schedynge [L. confusio]; for þere..þe longages..of þe bulders were i-schad and to schift.
1390c (▸a1376) Langland Piers Plowman (Vernon) (1867) A. vi. 18 (MED), Bethleem and Babiloyne [c1400 C text Babilonie], I haue ben in boþe.
1398▸a J. Trevisa tr. Bartholomaeus Anglicus De Proprietatibus Rerum (BL Add. 27944) (1975) II. xv. xxii. 738 Babilonia is a prouynce of Asia in Caldea, þe hede þereof is þe cite Babilon.
1405c (▸c1390) Chaucer Man of Law's Prol. (Hengwrt) (2003) l. 63 Ther maystow seen the large woundes wyde Of Lucresse and of Babilan [c1410 Harl. 7334 Babiloun, c1430 Cambr. Gg.4.27 babiloyn] Tisbee.
1425a (▸c1395) Bible (Wycliffite, L.V.) (Royal) (1850) Isa. xiii. 8 Gnawyngis and sorewis schulen holde Babiloyns; thei schulen haue sorewe, as they that trauelen of child.
1450c King Ponthus (Digby) in Publ. Mod. Lang. Assoc. Amer. (1897) 12 1 (MED), In that tyme itt happened in the Est that the sawdeyn of Babilon was of gret power.
1450c Mandeville's Trav. (Coventry) (1973) l. 1319 (MED), In Babiloine, I telle you welle, There is þe toure of Babelle; In þe grete desert hit stant certein Bitwene Arabie and Macedoyn.
1475?a (▸?a1425) tr. R. Higden Polychron. (Harl.) (1869) II. 251 God dispersede theyme rather leste thei scholde make dissencion amonge theyme selfe, whiche place was callede Babel [L. Babel], sowndenge ‘a confusion.’
1500a Rev. Methodius in Publ. Mod. Lang. Assoc. Amer. (1918) 33 171 (MED), The fers babylons..ffowre ml. ȝere regnyd also.
1500a (▸?a1400) Stanzaic Life of Christ (Harl. 3909) (1926) l. 86 (MED), Peple of Israel home wer broght ffrom Babilony.
1529a J. Skelton Tunnyng of Elynour Rummyng in Certayne Bks. (?1545) 387 A clatterynge and a babell Of folys fylly.
1530 Tyndale Pract. Prelates sig. Fvv, The greate baude the hore of babylon [sc. the Pope].
1530a (▸c1425) Andrew of Wyntoun Oryg. Cron. Scotl. (Royal) i. 879 ...That towre Babell callyde he.
1534 tr. L. Valla Treat. Donation vnto Syluester iv. sig. kiiiv, ... as the Babylonians dyd worshippe another dragon.
1535 Bible (Coverdale) Josh. vii. D, A costly Babilonish [Wycliffite reed] garment.
1537 tr. Original & Sprynge all Sectes f. 60, Beholde..thys Babel or confusion, and compare with ...
1542? Coverdale tr. Supplicacion vnto Kyng Ferdinandus To Rdr., Shame those wycked Babilonians ...
1549 Coverdale et al. tr. Erasmus Paraphr. Newe Test. II. 1 Pet. Argt. f. i, ... the vnderstanding of Rome by Babylon.
1553 J. Brende tr. Q. Curtius Rufus Hist. v. f. 58v, Laste in ordre came the Babilonian horsemen [L. equites Babylonii].
1554 Soveraigne Cordial sig. A.iiii, ... build they neuer so stronglie, yet shal their Babell fal down.
1567 G. Fenton tr. M. Bandello Certaine Tragicall Disc. f. 123, Thabuse of the babylonian or dyabolicall secte ...
1570 J. Foxe Actes & Monumentes (rev. ed.) II. 1464/1 ... but so did not the babilonish Priestes.
1572 T. Twyne tr. Dionysius Periegetes Surueye World sig. E v, Aboue Babylon towards the north, ...
1577 J. Fit John Diamonde Most Precious sig. Ij, ... conuayed away a goodly Babilonish Garment.
1579 J. Jones Arte Preseruing Bodie & Soule i. xix. 37 The Assyrians and Babilonians boughte their wiues..,.
1581 in J. Cranstoun Satirical Poems Reformation (1891) I. xliv. 39 ...procreat to be Duellaris into his Babilon, Geneue.
1588 E. B. in D. Archdeacon tr. True Disc. Armie King of Spaine Ep. to Rdr. 8 ...made like Babel towers, ...
1588 J. de Frégeville Reformed Politicke 86 ... the same was the reuolution of the Babylonian Empire.
1590 H. Barrow in H. Barrow & J. Greenwood Coll. Certain Lett. & Conf. i. 10 ...theis Babilonish Bishopps.
1591 H. Barrow Plaine Refut. Giffardes Bk. ii. 89 We blame & forsake these Babilonish confuse assemblies, ...
1591 Troublesome Raigne Iohn ii. sig. E3, Treads downe the Strumpets pride, That sits vpon the chaire of Babylon.
1592 H. Broughton Apol. in Briefe Assertions To Rdr. sig. Av, From the end of the Babylonian captiuitie, ...
1593 G. Harvey Pierces Supererogation 177 .the heauen-surmounting Babell of Ryme.
1599 E. Spenser in L. Lewkenor tr. G. Contarini Commonw. & Gouernment Venice sig. ❧ 3v, The antique Babel,...
1600 C. Tourneur Transformed Metamorph. sig. B3v, ...O see ere long her Babel Babelliz'd.
1600 F. Hastings Apol. or Def. Watch-word 194 Your counterfaite Ward is too weake to keepe in safetie, and strength your Romish Babell or the Bishops thereof.
1603 H. Clapham Epist. vpon present Pestilence v. sig. B3, The sword of Romish Babilonians was prest ...
1603 J. Davies Microcosmos 208 Vp goe his Babell-Towres of Pompe and Pride, ...
1605 G. Buck Δαϕνις Πολυστεϕανος xxvi. sig. E3v, ...(Not to build Babels and Castles in the ayre) ...
1607 E. Topsell Hist. Fovre-footed Beastes 627 The Babilonians and the Alexandrians loued diuersity of colours...
1610 H. Broughton Reuelation Holy Apocalyps (new ed.) 142 ...such were Babel builders, till heathen came to God.
1610 H. Broughton Reuelation Holy Apocalyps (new ed.) xvii. 262 Babelish idolatrie of cursed Rome, ...
1610 in M. C. Questier Newslett. Archpresbyterate G. Birkhead (1998) 84, ... to Babylon in mainteyinge it.
1611 Bible (King James) Gen. xi. 9 Therefore is the name of it called Babel, because the Lord dyd there ...
1614 W. Camden Remaines (rev. ed.) 40 Brings the same..to a Babellish confusion.
1617 in F. J. Furnivall Harrison's Descr. Eng. (1908) IV. 280 ...this Babylonian confusion.
1623 J. Bingham tr. Xenophon Hist. 29 ... reach to Villages of the Babylonian Territorie.
1630 J. Taylor All Wks. 114/2 The tongues confusion in our braue Exchange Shall Babell like declare thy story strange.
1631 W. Lisle Faire Æthiopian v. 74 ...Vnder the mightie Babylonish King.
1635 E. Rainbow Labour 41 Thy great Babilons which thou hast built.
1637 G. Gillespie Dispute against Eng.-Popish Ceremonies ii. vii. 28 The Babylonian baggage of ...
1640 J. Fletcher & J. Shirley Night-walker ii. sig. D3, All the chambers Are a meere babell, or another bedlam.
1642 Anat. of Separatists 3 They frame a long Babel-like prayer, made up with hums and hawes.
1642 J. Goodwin Anti-cavalierisme 32 ..those Kings that were Babylonish, and ... by whom Babylonisme ...
1643 F. Cheynell Sions Memento 33 Let us have no more Babylonian Ministers, Priests, (so they would be called).
1644 J. Vicars Babylons Beautie 30 ...(whom though mixed among the Romish Babylonians, ...)
1646 J. Vicars Burning-bush not Consumed 183 ... that could bee made of such Roman Babylonish babyish fooleries.
1650 T. Fuller Pisgah-sight of Palestine i. x. 33 The Babylonish captivity did onely snuffe Iudah, for seventy years.
1653 R. Baxter Christian Concord 101 Sion is not built by the Babel-confusions.
1654 Some Notes of Publishers in T. Jackson Exact Coll. Wks. 3137 He..travail'd through Ægypt, Babylonie, ...
1654 T. Gage Full Surv. Sion & Babylon (title-page), ...injurious nickname of Babylonish.
1655 O. Cromwell Let. Oct. (1845) II. 193 That Roman Babylon, of which the Spaniard is the great underpropper.
1656 T. Blount Glossographia at Babel, Hence 'tis we use babelish for confused.
1657 J. Smith Myst. Rhetorique 149 ...of the terrible Army of the Babylonians.
1657a R. Lovelace Poems (1864) 201 A great cathedral in the sea, Under whose Babylonian walls ...
1663 S. Butler Hudibras: First Pt. i. i. 8 A Babylonish dialect, Which learned Pedants much affect.
1665a J. Earle Char. Tavern (1675) 2 ... hooting and laughing confound the noise of Fidlers..; 'Tis a Babel of Voices.
1667 Milton Paradise Lost iii. 468 And still with vain designe New Babels, had they wherewithall, would build.
1677 R. Gilpin Dæmonol. Sacra ii. iv. 248 For from good Bishops..they are become incurable Babylonians.
1681 P. Rycaut tr. B. Gracián y Morales Critick 78 ... the Babylon of Spain, the Treasury of Riches,...
1681 T. Barlow Let. 12 July in R. Boyle Corr. (2001) V. 260, I doe not doubt, but that Rome is mysticall Babylon,...
1684 tr. R. Simon Crit. Hist. Old Test. ii. xviii. 128 Thus they mix'd the Hebrew and Babylonian Language.]
1701 M. Pix Double Distress i. 7 ..Medeans from Euphrates Banks And Babylon's exalted Towers, ...
1701a H. Maundrell Journey Aleppo to Jerusalem (1703) 16 What remains of this mighty Babel..is no more ...
1705 R. Blackmore Eliza ii. 47 From adult'rous Rome's unclean Embraces flew. They Babylonian Sorceries ...
1710 E. Settle Thalia Lacrimans 13 Ay, there's true felt Grief: That Babel Sound Does all the...
1711 R. Steele Spectator No. 167. ⁋3 The fond Builder of Babels.
1715 S. Asplin Sermon 15 ... did that execrable Monster Cromwell rear up his Babel Scheme.
1723 I. Martin Tryal & Sufferings Ded., ...and Persecution, and for all the other Abominations of the Roman Babel.
1724 A. Collins Disc. Grounds Christian Relig. ii. vii. 206 ...some modern Samaritan compil'd it chiefly out of the different copies of the Palestinian and Babylonian Jews.
1727a I. Newton Chronol. Anc. Kingdoms Amended (1728) iii. 292 ...the Babylonians and Medes.
1729 R. Savage Wanderer ii. v, The traitors rear their babel-schemes.
1731 J. Chapman Remarks Let. to Dr. Waterland 33 What a ridiculous Figure would .. Scaliger .. in Chronology,... and many other Tongues to the Babel-Confusion!
1731 J. Chapman Remarks Let. to Dr. Waterland 41 ...or allowing a formation of new languages at Babel.
1732 W. Holmes Plain Reasons against joining with Nonsubscribers 9 What kind of Babel-like confusion ...
1738 J. Wesley Psalms cxxxvii, Fast by the Babylonish Tide..We dropt our weary Limbs.
1738 Swift Reasons Humbly offered in Polit. Tracts II. The whole Babel of Sectaries joined against the Church.
1743 Gentleman's Mag. May 247/1 Some Time after the Deluge, the Babylonians put this invention in Practice.
1746c J. Hervey Medit. (1818) 39 God from on high laughs at the Babel-builder.
1757 E. Kimber Juvenile Adventures of David Ranger i. 8 ... a Babylonian confusion of sounds was heard.
1757 M. Postlethwayt Great Britain's True Syst. ix. 212 Certain it is that this Babel of Paper-Credit must have its Fall.
1765 ‘Rabby Shylock’ Jew Apologist ii. xii. 154 ..., Incurable Babylonians, infine, Are popes epithets.
1766 T. Amory Life John Buncle II. iv. 107 ...proved it to be the Great Babylon, ...which the apostles describe.
1772 J. Spencer Hermas II. xii. 165 All transient views... or build a Babel Tower.
1785 S. Felton Explanation Several Hogarth's Prints 41 ...many noises in this Babel of savage sounds would ...
1786 E. Apthorp Disc. Prophecy II. 247 This antichristian policy... and their return from their Babylonian Captivity.
1789 G. Campbell in tr. Four Gospels II. Pref. 20 Calling the language they had adopted Chaldee, Babylonian, ...
1790 E. Burke Refl. Revol. in France 41 The confused jargon of their Babylonian pulpits.
1790 M. De Fleury Brit. Liberty Established i. 11 ..., frowning, shakes their mighty Babels down.
1790 W. Cowper Let. 8 June in Wks. (1836) VI. 311 You..in such a Babylon as you must necessarily inhabit,...
1793 J. Hely tr. R. O'Flaherty Ogygia II. iii. xxx. 89 There were seventy-two matricular Babylonian tongues.
1795 Gentleman's Mag. Mar. 227 He concurs with the modern prophet in pronouncing London to be Babylon.
1797 R. Southey Lett. from Spain vi. 72 Here the Babylonian [= Roman Catholic priest] walks the street...
1798 P. Francis Let. 18 Sept. (1901) II. 432 As for silence the Abbaye of La Trappe is a mere Babel to this house.
1799 W. Hurd New Universal Hist. Rites (new ed.) App. 859/1 Babylon, once the capital of the Babylonish empire, has now no remains of if left.of Corinthian brass, Babels of stone, and pyramids of clay.and Euphrates, where stood the tower of Babel, was known us the Land of Shinar.
Apprentice Zachary, through his own free will, is desirous of becoming an apprentice to a great occultist. The subject of the research was original to Apprentice Zachary. Place names often "moved" before the age of printing. We read in the Apocalypse, "Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen." and wonder why the repetition of the phrase "is fallen": What great city, we are compelled to ask, has fallen twice? This can only be Constantinople; it fell once during the crusades (1204) and the second time was in 1453.
Part the First
The Oxford English Dictionary has been consulted for the following research. Secondary sources are in red. Citations after the year 1800 are excluded.
Etymology: < classical Latin Babylōnius Babylonian n. Compare Anglo-Norman Babiloyn (14th cent. or earlier), Italian †babilonio (first half of the 14th cent.). In Old English apparently attested only in the translation of Orosius Hist., and usually belonging to the i -stem declension typical for ethnonyms (however, compare accusative plural Babylonias in quot. eOE2). The word was perhaps reborrowed in the 14th cent.
eOE tr. Orosius Hist. (BL Add.) ii. i. 38 Babylonie mid monigfealdum unryhtum & firenlustum mid heora cyninge buton ælcre hreowe libbende wæran.
eOE tr. Orosius Hist. (BL Add.) iii. xi. 78 Fratauernis hæfde Armenie; & Theleomommos hæfde Meþas; & Feucestas hæfde Babylonias [L. Babylonios].
▸a1387 J. Trevisa in tr. R. Higden Polychron. (St. John's Cambr.) (1871) III. 155 (MED), Cresus..halp þe Babilons [L. Babylonios]..and whanne þe Babilons were i-sesed, Cirus took Cresus.
a1425 (▸c1395) Bible (Wycliffite, L.V.) (Royal) (1850) Isa. xiii. 8 Gnawyngis and sorewis schulen holde Babiloyns; thei schulen haue sorewe, as they that trauelen of child.
a1500 Rev. Methodius in Publ. Mod. Lang. Assoc. Amer. (1918) 33 171 (MED), The fers babylons..ffowre ml. ȝere regnyd also.
Forms: OE Babilonie (plural), OE Babylonias (accusative plural), OE Babylonie...
Babylonian, n. and adj.
Forms: 15–16 Babilonian, 15– Babylonian, 16 Babalonian.
Etymology: < classical Latin Babylōnius of Babylon, Babylonian ( < ancient Greek Βαβυλώνιος < Βαβυλών (see Babylon n.2) + -ιος , suffix forming adjectives) + -an suffix. Compare Anglo-Norman and Middle French babilonien , Middle French, French babylonien (noun) native or inhabitant of ancient Babylon (c1300 or earlier in Anglo-Norman in an apparently isolated attestation, subsequently from 1546; rare before mid 18th cent.), the dialect of Akkadian spoken in ancient Babylon (1838), (adjective) of or belonging to ancient Babylon (1550). With use as noun compare earlier Babylon
n.1 With use as adjective compare earlier Babylonish adj.
A. n.
a. A native or inhabitant of the ancient city of Babylon (now in Iraq), or the ancient Babylonian Empire. hist.
1534 tr. L. Valla Treat. Donation vnto Syluester iv. sig. kiiiv, I suppose they dyd worshippe him for a god, euyn so as the Babylonians dyd worshippe another dragon.
?1542 Coverdale tr. Supplicacion vnto Kyng Ferdinandus To Rdr., Shame those wycked Babilonians & sedicious Coraites, that disturbe all ordinaunces of God.
1579 J. Jones Arte Preseruing Bodie & Soule i. xix. 37 The Assyrians and Babilonians boughte their wiues.., but after vsed mariages, regarding therewith their Prolataries, as the Spartanes didde them that begatte their men children.
1607 E. Topsell Hist. Fovre-footed Beastes 627 The Babilonians and the Alexandrians loued diuersity of colours in their garments.
1657 J. Smith Myst. Rhetorique 149 Thus in Joel 2. from 1. to the 12. ver. you have a most lively Rhetorical Prosopopoeical description of the terrible Army of the Babylonians.
a1727 I. Newton Chronol. Anc. Kingdoms Amended (1728) iii. 292 The two collateral Empires of the Babylonians and Medes.
1743 Gentleman's Mag. May 247/1 Some Time after the Deluge, the Babylonians put this invention in Practice.
b. An astrologer. rare (now hist.). With reference to the Babylonian development of astrology.
1677 R. Gilpin Dæmonol. Sacra ii. iv. 248 For from good Bishops..they are become incurable Babylonians.
The connect between Babylon and astrology is noticed as early as 1677.
†2. derogatory. A Roman Catholic; (occas.) the Roman Catholic Church. Obs. Chiefly with reference to Revelation 14–18. See Babylon n.2 1.
1603 H. Clapham Epist. vpon present Pestilence v. sig. B3, The sword of Romish Babilonians was prest to haue bene drawen within and without vs.
1644 J. Vicars Babylons Beautie 30 The Lord Jesus Christ, most graciously invites all his poore people (whom though mixed among the Romish Babylonians, he hath a purpose to save).
1765 ‘Rabby Shylock’ Jew Apologist ii. xii. 154 Usurping Nimrods, then s—d—m—tes, then Egyptian wizzards, and Abedons next, Incurable Babylonians, infine, Are popes epithets.
1797 R. Southey Lett. from Spain vi. 72 Here the Babylonian [= Roman Catholic priest] walks the street in full dress scarlet.
The Roman Church and Babylon are seen as similar entities.
3. †a. The Aramaic language. Obs. rare.
1684 tr. R. Simon Crit. Hist. Old Test. ii. xviii. 128 Thus they mix'd the Hebrew and Babylonian Language.
1789 G. Campbell in tr. Four Gospels II. Pref. 20 Calling the language they had adopted Chaldee, Babylonian, or even the language of Aram.
Aramaic and Babylon were thought to be the same language as late as 1684.
b. The dialect of Akkadian spoken by the inhabitants of the ancient Babylonian Empire. hist.
1870 G. C. Swayne Herodotus v. 78 It is in three languages—old Persian, Babylonian, and Scythian.
1888 A. H. Sayce Hittites ii. 23 At that time Babylonian was the international language.
1908 Jewish Q. Rev. 20 498 It is now established that Babylonian was the diplomatic language of the period.
1927 Times 19 May 13/5 The record was found engraven in three languages—Old Persian, Elamite, and Babylonian.
1987 C. B. F. Walker Cuneiform i. 16 Anything written in Babylonian or Assyrian can equally be said to be written in Akkadian.
1991 C. B. Boyer & U. C. Merzbach Hist. Math. (ed. 2) ii. 10 It was discovered that the Behistun Cliff carried a trilingual account of the victory of Darius over Cambyses, the inscriptions being in Persian, Elamitic and Babylonian.
Although the above citations are after the year 1800, we have included them because we learn (1) Babylonian is a dialect of Akkadian (1870) and (2) it was the international language(1888).
B. adj.
a. Of, from, or belonging to the ancient city of Babylon (now in Iraq), or the ancient Babylonian Empire. hist.
1553 J. Brende tr. Q. Curtius Rufus Hist. v. f. 58v, Laste in ordre came the Babilonian horsemen [L. equites Babylonii].
1588 J. de Frégeville Reformed Politicke 86 Cirus wrought great matters with smal power, but that came to passe because the same was the reuolution of the Babylonian Empire.
1623 J. Bingham tr. Xenophon Hist. 29 All set forward..imagining that by sun-set they should reach to Villages of the Babylonian Territorie.
1724 A. Collins Disc. Grounds Christian Relig. ii. vii. 206 It is not improbable..that some modern Samaritan compil'd it chiefly out of the different copies of the Palestinian and Babylonian Jews.
1793 J. Hely tr. R. O'Flaherty Ogygia II. iii. xxx. 89 There were seventy-two matricular Babylonian tongues.
NB- the previous quotes do not indicate where Babylon was located. The editors have presumed it is in present day Iraq.
b. Characteristic of Babylon or its inhabitants; spec. (a) huge, gigantic; (b) decadent, indulgent. Also: = Babelish adj. 2.
With the sense ‘huge, gigantic’, cf. Babel n. 3.
1617 in F. J. Furnivall Harrison's Descr. Eng. (1908) IV. 280 Many good Lawes have been made against this Babylonian confusion.
a1657 R. Lovelace Poems (1864) 201 A great cathedral in the sea, Under whose Babylonian walls A small thin frigot almshouse stalls?
1757 E. Kimber Juvenile Adventures of David Ranger i. 8 To compose her to rest a Babylonian confusion of sounds was heard.
†2. derogatory. Of, relating to, or belonging to the Roman Catholic Church; Roman Catholic. Obs. Chiefly with reference to Revelation 14–18. See Babylon n.2 1.
1567 G. Fenton tr. M. Bandello Certaine Tragicall Disc. f. 123, Thabuse of the babylonian or dyabolicall secte of Rome, appeares so plainely in their detestable trade of liuinge.
1637 G. Gillespie Dispute against Eng.-Popish Ceremonies ii. vii. 28 The Babylonian baggage of Antichristian Ceremonies.
1643 F. Cheynell Sions Memento 33 Let us have no more Babylonian Ministers, Priests, (so they would be called).
1705 R. Blackmore Eliza ii. 47 From adult'rous Rome's unclean Embraces flew. They Babylonian Sorceries abhor'd, No longer Bread, instead of God, ador'd.
1790 E. Burke Refl. Revol. in France 41 The confused jargon of their Babylonian pulpits.
Babylonian captivity n. the captivity of the Israelites in Babylon, lasting from their deportation by Nebuchadnezzar (c586 b.c.) until their release by Cyrus the Great (c539 b.c.); (hence allusively) the exile of the papacy from Rome to Avignon,1309–77.
[1535 Babylonical captivity [see Babylonical adj. 1]. ]
1592 H. Broughton Apol. in Briefe Assertions To Rdr. sig. Av, From the end of the Babylonian captiuitie, the first seauen must be reckoned: and the last hath in it our Lords death.
1786 E. Apthorp Disc. Prophecy II. 247 This antichristian policy was checked by the great schism, A.1378–1428, which followed the lxx years' residence of the Popes at Avignon, A. 1305–1377, and their return from their Babylonian Captivity.
The connection between Rome and the Babylon is made clear with the "Babylonian Captivity." This can be understood as (1) the Papacy was taken to Babylon (or Avignon) or (2) the captivity was of Babylon (the Papacy or Rome) in Avignon.
Babylonish, adj. (and n.)
Forms: OE Babilonisc, OE Babylonisc, lOE Babilonissc, 15 Babilonish, 15 Babylonishe... (Show More)
Etymology: < the name of Babylon (see Babylon n.2) + -ish suffix1. In later use perhaps after German babylonisch of, from, or relating to the ancient city of Babylon or to the ancient Babylonian Empire (1525; also †babilonisch). The specific use in sense 2 is apparently not paralleled in German. Compare later Babylonical adj., Babylonic adj., Babylonian adj. With sense 3 compare later Babelish adj. The word apparently became obsolete at the end of the Old English period and was re-formed in the 16th cent.
1. Of, from, or relating to the ancient city of Babylon (now in Iraq), or to the ancient Babylonian Empire (hist.). Also: resembling (that of) Babylon or Babylonia. In Old English also as n.
eOE tr. Orosius Hist. (BL Add.) ii. i. 36 Babylonisce þæt æreste [heafodrice] & Romane þæt siðmeste hie wæron swa fæder & sunu.
OE Ælfric Catholic Homilies: 1st Ser. (Royal) (1997) xxxvii. 503 On Cires dagum cyninges, wrehton þa babiloniscan þone witegan Danihel for þan ðe he towearp heora deofolgyld.
OE Ælfric Catholic Homilies: 2nd Ser. (Cambr. Gg.3.28) iv. 37 Se babilonisca cyning Nabochodonosor.
1535 Bible (Coverdale) Josh. vii. D, A costly Babilonish [Wycliffite reed] garment.
1577 J. Fit John Diamonde Most Precious sig. Ij, Achan the sonne of Zereth, stole and conuayed away a goodly Babilonish Garment.
1631 W. Lisle Faire Æthiopian v. 74 His name was Mitranes, Lieutenant vnto Lord Orondates; That had all Ægypt in his gouerning. Vnder the mightie Babylonish King.
1650 T. Fuller Pisgah-sight of Palestine i. x. 33 The Babylonish captivity did onely snuffe Iudah, for seventy years.
1738 J. Wesley Psalms cxxxvii, Fast by the Babylonish Tide..We dropt our weary Limbs.
1799 W. Hurd New Universal Hist. Rites (new ed.) App. 859/1 Babylon, once the capital of the Babylonish empire, has now no remains of if left.
†2. derogatory. Of, relating to, or belonging to the Roman Catholic Church; Roman Catholic. Obs. Chiefly with reference to Revelation 14–18. See Babylon n.2 1.
1570 J. Foxe Actes & Monumentes (rev. ed.) II. 1464/1 The poore man had his mony, and diuers laughed well therat: but so did not the babilonish Priestes.
1590 H. Barrow in H. Barrow & J. Greenwood Coll. Certain Lett. & Conf. i. 10 The Antichristian yoke of theis Babilonish Bishopps.
1642 J. Goodwin Anti-cavalierisme 32 They had lived under those Kings that were Babylonish, and had given their Kingdomes to the whore, and by whom Babylonisme had been countenanced and set up.
1646 J. Vicars Burning-bush not Consumed 183 Many Popish Books,..were laid up and kept till a due time to bee reduced into ashes by the fire, the best use that could bee made of such Roman Babylonish babyish fooleries.
1654 T. Gage Full Surv. Sion & Babylon (title-page), A clear Vindication of the..Parochial Ministers of England, from the..injurious nickname of Babylonish.
3. = Babelish adj. 2.
1591 H. Barrow Plaine Refut. Giffardes Bk. ii. 89 We blame & forsake these Babilonish confuse assemblies, where al sortes of prophane and wicked are gathered together without faith or order.
1663 S. Butler Hudibras: First Pt. i. i. 8 A Babylonish dialect, Which learned Pedants much affect.
Etymology: < the name of Babel (see Babel n.) + -ish suffix1. On the use in sense 1 compare discussion at Babel n.
†1. Of or belonging to Rome or the Roman Catholic Church (see Babel n. 4). Cf. Babylonish adj. 2. Obs. rare.
1610 H. Broughton Reuelation Holy Apocalyps (new ed.) xvii. 262 Babelish idolatrie of cursed Rome, that crucified Christ, and by the serpents biting pierced his footestepp and handes: and would naile fast all feete and handes, from walking in Gods wayes: and working in his trueth.
2. Resembling or characteristic of the confusion at Babel (see Babel n.); characterized by noisy disorder; (esp. of language) confused, incoherent.
1614 W. Camden Remaines (rev. ed.) 40 Brings the same..to a Babellish confusion.
1656 T. Blount Glossographia at Babel, Hence 'tis we use babelish for confused.
Forms: 15–16 Babell, 15– Babel, 18 Bawbel (Sc.). Also with lower-case initial.
Etymology: < Babel, the name of a city in ancient Babylonia (see note) < classical Latin Babel (Vulgate: Genesis 11:9, etc.) < Hebrew Bāḇel (see below). The senses of the English noun largely reflect the details of the biblical story of the building of the Tower of Babel and its various results (e.g. the confusion of languages, and the failure of the project), but were probably influenced early on by association with the (etymologically unrelated) babble n. and babble v.1 Compare French Babel confusion of opinions, confused discourse (1762; 1555 in an isolated attestation in Middle French in uncertain sense (perhaps ‘place characterized by pride’ or ‘place characterized by confusion’), in a pejorative context with reference to Rome). With the anti-Catholic uses in sense 4 compare the note at Babylon n.2 1.
Hebrew Bāḇel shows a borrowing of the Akkadian name of the city, bāb-ilim , lit. ‘the gate of the god’ (in later sources (from the 9th cent. b.c. onwards) also bāb-ili ‘the gate of the god’ and bāb-ilī ‘the gate of the gods’; in both of these compounds, the second element could be written with various inflectional endings). This in turn probably reflects a folk-etymological reapprehension (as if < Akkadian bāb gate (cognate with Hebrew bāb and Arabic bāb , in same sense) + ili god, cognate with the words for ‘god’ in other Semitic languages cited at Allah n.) of a place name of unknown origin, probably a borrowing from a substrate language. Compare the Sumerian name of the city of Babel, ká.dingir.ra, lit. ‘the gate of the god’, which probably shows a calque on the Akkadian name. In Genesis 11, Hebrew Bāḇel is folk-etymologically associated with Hebrew bālal ‘to confuse, confound’.
The name of the city and tower of Babel (with reference to the story from Genesis 11:1–9) is attested in English contexts from the Old English period onwards (also in Middle English as Babelle, and in Older Scots and early modern English as Babell):
OE Old Eng. Hexateuch: Gen. (Claud.) xi. 9 For ðam man nemde ða stowe Babel, for ðam ðar wæron todælede ealle spæce.
a1325 (▸c1250) Gen. & Exod. (1968) l. 671 Babel ðat tur bi-lef un-mad, Ðat folc is wide on lon sad.
▸a1382 Bible (Wycliffite, E.V.) (Bodl. 959) (1959) Gen. xi. 9 Þerfor was clepid þe name of it Babel [L. Babel], for þer was confoundid þe lypp of all erþ.
▸a1387 J. Trevisa tr. R. Higden Polychron. (St. John's Cambr.) (1869) II. 251 Þat place is i-cleped Babel, þat is to menynge schedynge [L. confusio]; for þere..þe longages..of þe bulders were i-schad and to schift.
c1450 Mandeville's Trav. (Coventry) (1973) l. 1319 (MED), In Babiloine, I telle you welle, There is þe toure of Babelle; In þe grete desert hit stant certein Bitwene Arabie and Macedoyn.
?a1475 (▸?a1425) tr. R. Higden Polychron. (Harl.) (1869) II. 251 God dispersede theyme rather leste thei scholde make dissencion amonge theyme selfe, whiche place was callede Babel [L. Babel], sowndenge ‘a confusion.’
a1530 (▸c1425) Andrew of Wyntoun Oryg. Cron. Scotl. (Royal) i. 879 A Towre of huge hycht Wes bygyt..That towre Babell callyde he.
1611 Bible (King James) Gen. xi. 9 Therefore is the name of it called Babel, because the Lord dyd there confounde the language of all the earth.
1731 J. Chapman Remarks Let. to Dr. Waterland 41 The variety of idioms now spoken can be no way possibly accounted for, without either approving the preadamite system, or allowing a formation of new languages at Babel.
1. A confused or discordant medley of sounds, esp. of voices; a hubbub, a din. Perh. influenced by babble n. 2 in later use.
a1529 J. Skelton Tunnyng of Elynour Rummyng in Certayne Bks. (?1545) 387 A clatterynge and a babell Of folys fylly.
a1665 J. Earle Char. Tavern (1675) 2 All with loud hooting and laughing confound the noise of Fidlers..; 'Tis a Babel of Voices.
1785 S. Felton Explanation Several Hogarth's Prints 41 It would be no very easy question to determine which of the many noises in this Babel of savage sounds would be the most tormenting.
2. A scene of noisy confusion; (also) a jumbled, disparate, or discordant collection of people or things.
1537 tr. Original & Sprynge all Sectes f. 60, Beholde..thys Babel or confusion, and compare with thys the Heythenysh and Turkysh secte..which goeth aboute, mommynge wyth so many visores.
1640 J. Fletcher & J. Shirley Night-walker ii. sig. D3, All the chambers Are a meere babell, or another bedlam.
1738 Swift Reasons Humbly offered in Polit. Tracts II. The whole Babel of Sectaries joined against the Church.
1798 P. Francis Let. 18 Sept. (1901) II. 432 As for silence the Abbaye of La Trappe is a mere Babel to this house.
3. A tall or imposing structure, often one (esp. in early use) which may collapse; also fig.
1554 Soveraigne Cordial sig. A.iiii, Worcke they neuer so crafteli, build they neuer so stronglie, yet shal their Babell fal down.
1593 G. Harvey Pierces Supererogation 177 The huge Gargantua of prose, and..the heauen-surmounting Babell of Ryme.
a1701 H. Maundrell Journey Aleppo to Jerusalem (1703) 16 What remains of this mighty Babel..is no more than twenty foot high.
1790 M. De Fleury Brit. Liberty Established i. 11 Heav'n puffs at their designs from his high throne, And, frowning, shakes their mighty Babels down.
4. derogatory. Rome, esp. as the seat of the Pope and the centre of authority of the Roman Catholic Church; (more generally) the Roman Catholic Church. Cf. Babylon n.2 1. Now rare.
1599 E. Spenser in L. Lewkenor tr. G. Contarini Commonw. & Gouernment Venice sig. ❧ 3v, The antique Babel, Empresse of the East, Vpreard her buildinges to the threatned skie: And Second Babell tyrant of the West, Her ayry Towers vpraised much more high.
1600 F. Hastings Apol. or Def. Watch-word 194 Your counterfaite Ward is too weake to keepe in safetie, and strength your Romish Babell or the Bishops thereof.
1723 I. Martin Tryal & Sufferings Ded., It may be of use, towards giving to those..who have not..seen the cruel effects of Popish Tyranny, a just abhorrence for the Spirit of Bigotry and Persecution, and for all the other Abominations of the Roman Babel.
5. An ambitious or unrealistic project; a visionary scheme, esp. one doomed to failure.
1600 C. Tourneur Transformed Metamorph. sig. B3v, Her [sc. Ambition's] high esteeme, is of high heau'n despisde; O see ere long her Babel Babelliz'd.
1605 G. Buck Δαϕνις Πολυστεϕανος xxvi. sig. E3v, Then comes his sonne with other architects (Not to build Babels and Castles in the ayre) But hee a holy house for God proiects.
1667 Milton Paradise Lost iii. 468 And still with vain designe New Babels, had they wherewithall, would build.
1711 R. Steele Spectator No. 167. ⁋3 The fond Builder of Babels.
1757 M. Postlethwayt Great Britain's True Syst. ix. 212 Certain it is that this Babel of Paper-Credit must have its Fall.
Compounds
C1. attrib., with the sense ‘resembling or reminiscent of that at Babel’ (see the etymology). In some quots. passing into adjectival use.
Babel confusion n.
1653 R. Baxter Christian Concord 101 Sion is not built by the Babel-confusions.
1731 J. Chapman Remarks Let. to Dr. Waterland 33 What a ridiculous Figure would Gesner or Scaliger or Bochart have made in Chronology, and Critique, if they had refer'd the French, Italian, English and many other Tongues to the Babel-Confusion!
Babel sound n.
1710 E. Settle Thalia Lacrimans 13 Ay, there's true felt Grief: That Babel Sound Does all the Languages of Joy confound..
Babel tower n.
1588 E. B. in D. Archdeacon tr. True Disc. Armie King of Spaine Ep. to Rdr. 8 The Spanishe king..hath by hys ships, made like Babel towers, vaunted himselfe to make vs afrayd.
1603 J. Davies Microcosmos 208 Vp goe his Babell-Towres of Pompe and Pride, That to the High'st he may next neighbour be.
1772 J. Spencer Hermas II. xii. 165 All transient views, fame, learning, riches, power, Sink to their base, or build a Babel Tower.
Babel builder n. a person likened to a builder of the Tower of Babel, esp. in being arrogant or unrealistic.
1610 H. Broughton Reuelation Holy Apocalyps (new ed.) 142 Euery thing..being turned to seruice of Idolls grone in Gods estieme, as corrupted:..such were Babel builders, till heathen came to God.
c1746 J. Hervey Medit. (1818) 39 God from on high laughs at the Babel-builder.
Babel scheme n. now rare a project regarded as comparable to the building of the Tower of Babel, esp. in exhibiting arrogance.
1715 S. Asplin Sermon 15 To such a Pitch of Tyrannizing over every Thing, that look'd like Loyalty, and Conscience, and Conformity to the best Church and King in the World, did that execrable Monster Cromwell rear up his Babel Scheme.
1729 R. Savage Wanderer ii. v, The traitors rear their babel-schemes.
Derivatives
Babel-like adv. and adj.
1630 J. Taylor All Wks. 114/2 The tongues confusion in our braue Exchange Shall Babell like declare thy story strange.
1642 Anat. of Separatists 3 They frame a long Babel-like prayer, made up with hums and hawes.
1732 W. Holmes Plain Reasons against joining with Nonsubscribers 9 What kind of Babel-like confusion should this make?
Babylon, n.2
Forms: 15–16 Babilon, 15– Babylon, 19– Babylan (chiefly Caribbean).
Etymology: < the name of the city of Babylon ( < classical Latin Babylōn < ancient Greek Βαβυλών < Hebrew Bāḇel : see Babel n.). Corresponding forms of the name of the city are also attested in other European languages (also in similar transferred uses), e.g. Middle French Babilone, Babillone (a1400; French Babylone), Spanish †Babilon (15th cent.), Middle Dutch Babilone (Dutch Babylon), German Babylon (early 16th cent. or earlier). Compare also ( < classical Latin Babylōnia) Anglo-Norman Babeloine, Anglo-Norman and Middle French Babiloine, Babiloyne (first half of the 12th cent.; Middle French, French Babylonie), Spanish Babilonia (a1250), Italian Babilonia (second half of the 13th cent.; first half of the 13th cent. as †Babelonia; also †Babylonia), Middle Dutch Babilonie, Babylonie (Dutch Babylonië), all as names of the city of Babylon as well as of the ancient Babylonian Empire.
The ancient city of Babylon in Mesopotamia (modern Iraq), was the capital of the Babylonian or Chaldean Empire, and was renowned in antiquity for its magnificence. It was the site of the famous Hanging Gardens, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world; it is also thought to have been the original site of the biblical Tower of Babel. The captivity and exile of the Jews in Babylon in the 6th cent. B.C. at the height of the power of the Babylonian Empire under Nebuchadnezzar is an event of supreme significance in Jewish history, and underpins the symbolic description in the New Testament (Revelation 14–18) of ‘Babylon the Great’, a city of unparalleled worldliness.
Babylon and Babylonia occur as place names in English contexts from the Old English period onwards (in various forms; in quot. c1390 as the former name of a district of Old Cairo, also called Babylon the Less, site of a shrine of St Barbara and church of Our Lady):
OE Ælfric Catholic Homilies: 1st Ser. (Royal) (1997) xxxvii. 504 Abacuc, ber þone mete to Babylone & syle Danihele se þe sit on þæra leona seaðe.
OE Daniel 164 Ða hæfde Daniel dom micelne, blæd in Babilonia mid bocerum, siððan he gesæde swefen cyninge.
c1225 (▸?c1200) St. Margaret (Royal) 41 (MED), Babilones men..breken þat feat.
c1275 (▸?a1200) Laȝamon Brut (Calig.) (1978) l. 13810 He isæh i þan fihte enne ueond fusen, þat on admirail [c1300 Otho admurel], of Babiloine he wes ældere.
1340 Ayenbite (1866) 205 (MED), Þe children..weren y-borȝe ine þe fornayse of babyloyne.
c1390 (▸a1376) Langland Piers Plowman (Vernon) (1867) A. vi. 18 (MED), Bethleem and Babiloyne [c1400 C text Babilonie], I haue ben in boþe.
▸a1398 J. Trevisa tr. Bartholomaeus Anglicus De Proprietatibus Rerum (BL Add. 27944) (1975) II. xv. xxii. 738 Babilonia is a prouynce of Asia in Caldea, þe hede þereof is þe cite Babilon.
c1405 (▸c1390) Chaucer Man of Law's Prol. (Hengwrt) (2003) l. 63 Ther maystow seen the large woundes wyde Of Lucresse and of Babilan [c1410 Harl. 7334 Babiloun, c1430 Cambr. Gg.4.27 babiloyn] Tisbee.
c1450 King Ponthus (Digby) in Publ. Mod. Lang. Assoc. Amer. (1897) 12 1 (MED), In that tyme itt happened in the Est that the sawdeyn of Babilon was of gret power.
a1500 (▸?a1400) Stanzaic Life of Christ (Harl. 3909) (1926) l. 86 (MED), Peple of Israel home wer broght ffrom Babilony.
1572 T. Twyne tr. Dionysius Periegetes Surueye World sig. E v, Aboue Babylon towards the north, dwell a people called Cissi.
1654 Some Notes of Publishers in T. Jackson Exact Coll. Wks. 3137 He..travail'd through Ægypt, Babylonie, and Lacedæmon.
1701 M. Pix Double Distress i. 7 Now the haughty Medeans from Euphrates Banks And Babylon's exalted Towers, Have to Persepolis their bloody Standards rear'd.
Constantinople's famous tower was called the Great Tower.
1. derogatory. The city of Rome as the seat of the Pope and the centre of authority of the Roman Catholic Church; (more generally) the Roman Catholic Church, its institutions, practices, etc. Chiefly with reference to Revelation 14–18, which records the destruction of a great, but sinful, city named Babylon, taken by many commentators to symbolize the Roman Empire. Recorded earliest in the whore of Babylon at whore n. 2. Cf. also Lady of Babylon n. at lady n. Phrases 2b(a).
1530 Tyndale Pract. Prelates sig. Fvv, The greate baude the hore of babylon [sc. the Pope].
1549 Coverdale et al. tr. Erasmus Paraphr. Newe Test. II. 1 Pet. Argt. f. i, If any man allowe not the vnderstanding of Rome by Babylon.
1591 Troublesome Raigne Iohn ii. sig. E3, Treads downe the Strumpets pride, That sits vpon the chaire of Babylon.
1610 in M. C. Questier Newslett. Archpresbyterate G. Birkhead (1998) 84, I have..with my penne brought the popes quarrel upon me, and proclaimed publique defiance to Babylon in mainteyinge it.
1655 O. Cromwell Let. Oct. (1845) II. 193 That Roman Babylon, of which the Spaniard is the great underpropper.
1681 T. Barlow Let. 12 July in R. Boyle Corr. (2001) V. 260, I doe not doubt, but that Rome is mysticall Babylon, and the Pope that Beast, that Antichrist who rules there.
1766 T. Amory Life John Buncle II. iv. 107 So far from being a clear and necessary proof that the church of Rome is the body of Christ,..[Bellarmine's notes] proved it to be the Great Babylon, or that great enemy of God's church, which the apostles describe.
2. Any large and luxurious city; esp. one seen as decadent and corrupt (freq. depreciative). Cf. modern Babylon n. at modern adj. and n. Special uses 2.
1581 in J. Cranstoun Satirical Poems Reformation (1891) I. xliv. 39 Sik childrene hes he [sc. Satan] procreat to be Duellaris into his Babilon, Geneue.
1635 E. Rainbow Labour 41 Thy great Babilons which thou hast built.
1681 P. Rycaut tr. B. Gracián y Morales Critick 78 Such is the entrance we are now upon into this great City, the Babylon of Spain, the Treasury of Riches, the Theatre of Learning.
1790 W. Cowper Let. 8 June in Wks. (1836) VI. 311 You..will be secure against..temptations, to which..in such a Babylon as you must necessarily inhabit, you would otherwise have been exposed.
1795 Gentleman's Mag. Mar. 227 He concurs with the modern prophet in pronouncing London to be Babylon.
Part the Second
The above citations in chronological order and edited for space.
eOE tr. Orosius Hist. (BL Add.) ii. i. 36 Babylonisce þæt æreste [heafodrice] & Romane þæt siðmeste hie ...
eOE tr. Orosius Hist. (BL Add.) ii. i. 38 Babylonie mid monigfealdum unryhtum & firenlustum mid...
eOE tr. Orosius Hist. (BL Add.) iii. xi. 78 ...Theleomommos & Feucestas hæfde Babylonias [L. Babylonios].
OE Ælfric Catholic Homilies: 1st Ser. (Royal) (1997) xxxvii. 503 ...þa babiloniscan þone witegan Danihel for...
OE Ælfric Catholic Homilies: 1st Ser. (Royal) (1997) xxxvii. 504 ... to Babylone & syle Danihele se ...
OE Ælfric Catholic Homilies: 2nd Ser. (Cambr. Gg.3.28) iv. 37 Se babilonisca cyning Nabochodonosor.
OE Daniel 164 Ða hæfde Daniel dom micelne, blæd in Babilonia mid bocerum, siððan he gesæde swefen cyninge.
OE Old Eng. Hexateuch: Gen. (Claud.) xi. 9 For ðam man nemde ða stowe Babel, for ðam ðar wæron ...
1225c (▸?c1200) St. Margaret (Royal) 41 (MED), Babilones men..breken þat feat.
1275c (▸?a1200) Laȝamon Brut (Calig.) (1978) l. 13810 He isæh i þan fihte enne ueond fusen, þat on admirail [c1300 Otho admurel], of Babiloine he wes ældere.
1325a (▸c1250) Gen. & Exod. (1968) l. 671 Babel ðat tur bi-lef un-mad, Ðat folc is wide on lon sad.
1340 Ayenbite (1866) 205 (MED), Þe children..weren y-borȝe ine þe fornayse of babyloyne.
1382▸a Bible (Wycliffite, E.V.) (Bodl. 959) (1959) Gen. xi. 9 Þerfor was clepid þe name of it Babel [L. Babel], for þer was confoundid þe lypp of all erþ.
1387▸a J. Trevisa in tr. R. Higden Polychron. (St. John's Cambr.) (1871) III. 155 (MED), Cresus..halp þe Babilons [L. Babylonios]..and whanne þe Babilons were i-sesed, Cirus took Cresus.
1387▸a J. Trevisa tr. R. Higden Polychron. (St. John's Cambr.) (1869) II. 251 Þat place is i-cleped Babel, þat is to menynge schedynge [L. confusio]; for þere..þe longages..of þe bulders were i-schad and to schift.
1390c (▸a1376) Langland Piers Plowman (Vernon) (1867) A. vi. 18 (MED), Bethleem and Babiloyne [c1400 C text Babilonie], I haue ben in boþe.
1398▸a J. Trevisa tr. Bartholomaeus Anglicus De Proprietatibus Rerum (BL Add. 27944) (1975) II. xv. xxii. 738 Babilonia is a prouynce of Asia in Caldea, þe hede þereof is þe cite Babilon.
1405c (▸c1390) Chaucer Man of Law's Prol. (Hengwrt) (2003) l. 63 Ther maystow seen the large woundes wyde Of Lucresse and of Babilan [c1410 Harl. 7334 Babiloun, c1430 Cambr. Gg.4.27 babiloyn] Tisbee.
1425a (▸c1395) Bible (Wycliffite, L.V.) (Royal) (1850) Isa. xiii. 8 Gnawyngis and sorewis schulen holde Babiloyns; thei schulen haue sorewe, as they that trauelen of child.
1450c King Ponthus (Digby) in Publ. Mod. Lang. Assoc. Amer. (1897) 12 1 (MED), In that tyme itt happened in the Est that the sawdeyn of Babilon was of gret power.
1450c Mandeville's Trav. (Coventry) (1973) l. 1319 (MED), In Babiloine, I telle you welle, There is þe toure of Babelle; In þe grete desert hit stant certein Bitwene Arabie and Macedoyn.
1475?a (▸?a1425) tr. R. Higden Polychron. (Harl.) (1869) II. 251 God dispersede theyme rather leste thei scholde make dissencion amonge theyme selfe, whiche place was callede Babel [L. Babel], sowndenge ‘a confusion.’
1500a Rev. Methodius in Publ. Mod. Lang. Assoc. Amer. (1918) 33 171 (MED), The fers babylons..ffowre ml. ȝere regnyd also.
1500a (▸?a1400) Stanzaic Life of Christ (Harl. 3909) (1926) l. 86 (MED), Peple of Israel home wer broght ffrom Babilony.
1529a J. Skelton Tunnyng of Elynour Rummyng in Certayne Bks. (?1545) 387 A clatterynge and a babell Of folys fylly.
1530 Tyndale Pract. Prelates sig. Fvv, The greate baude the hore of babylon [sc. the Pope].
1530a (▸c1425) Andrew of Wyntoun Oryg. Cron. Scotl. (Royal) i. 879 ...That towre Babell callyde he.
1534 tr. L. Valla Treat. Donation vnto Syluester iv. sig. kiiiv, ... as the Babylonians dyd worshippe another dragon.
1535 Bible (Coverdale) Josh. vii. D, A costly Babilonish [Wycliffite reed] garment.
1537 tr. Original & Sprynge all Sectes f. 60, Beholde..thys Babel or confusion, and compare with ...
1542? Coverdale tr. Supplicacion vnto Kyng Ferdinandus To Rdr., Shame those wycked Babilonians ...
1549 Coverdale et al. tr. Erasmus Paraphr. Newe Test. II. 1 Pet. Argt. f. i, ... the vnderstanding of Rome by Babylon.
1553 J. Brende tr. Q. Curtius Rufus Hist. v. f. 58v, Laste in ordre came the Babilonian horsemen [L. equites Babylonii].
1554 Soveraigne Cordial sig. A.iiii, ... build they neuer so stronglie, yet shal their Babell fal down.
1567 G. Fenton tr. M. Bandello Certaine Tragicall Disc. f. 123, Thabuse of the babylonian or dyabolicall secte ...
1570 J. Foxe Actes & Monumentes (rev. ed.) II. 1464/1 ... but so did not the babilonish Priestes.
1572 T. Twyne tr. Dionysius Periegetes Surueye World sig. E v, Aboue Babylon towards the north, ...
1577 J. Fit John Diamonde Most Precious sig. Ij, ... conuayed away a goodly Babilonish Garment.
1579 J. Jones Arte Preseruing Bodie & Soule i. xix. 37 The Assyrians and Babilonians boughte their wiues..,.
1581 in J. Cranstoun Satirical Poems Reformation (1891) I. xliv. 39 ...procreat to be Duellaris into his Babilon, Geneue.
1588 E. B. in D. Archdeacon tr. True Disc. Armie King of Spaine Ep. to Rdr. 8 ...made like Babel towers, ...
1588 J. de Frégeville Reformed Politicke 86 ... the same was the reuolution of the Babylonian Empire.
1590 H. Barrow in H. Barrow & J. Greenwood Coll. Certain Lett. & Conf. i. 10 ...theis Babilonish Bishopps.
1591 H. Barrow Plaine Refut. Giffardes Bk. ii. 89 We blame & forsake these Babilonish confuse assemblies, ...
1591 Troublesome Raigne Iohn ii. sig. E3, Treads downe the Strumpets pride, That sits vpon the chaire of Babylon.
1592 H. Broughton Apol. in Briefe Assertions To Rdr. sig. Av, From the end of the Babylonian captiuitie, ...
1593 G. Harvey Pierces Supererogation 177 .the heauen-surmounting Babell of Ryme.
1599 E. Spenser in L. Lewkenor tr. G. Contarini Commonw. & Gouernment Venice sig. ❧ 3v, The antique Babel,...
1600 C. Tourneur Transformed Metamorph. sig. B3v, ...O see ere long her Babel Babelliz'd.
1600 F. Hastings Apol. or Def. Watch-word 194 Your counterfaite Ward is too weake to keepe in safetie, and strength your Romish Babell or the Bishops thereof.
1603 H. Clapham Epist. vpon present Pestilence v. sig. B3, The sword of Romish Babilonians was prest ...
1603 J. Davies Microcosmos 208 Vp goe his Babell-Towres of Pompe and Pride, ...
1605 G. Buck Δαϕνις Πολυστεϕανος xxvi. sig. E3v, ...(Not to build Babels and Castles in the ayre) ...
1607 E. Topsell Hist. Fovre-footed Beastes 627 The Babilonians and the Alexandrians loued diuersity of colours...
1610 H. Broughton Reuelation Holy Apocalyps (new ed.) 142 ...such were Babel builders, till heathen came to God.
1610 H. Broughton Reuelation Holy Apocalyps (new ed.) xvii. 262 Babelish idolatrie of cursed Rome, ...
1610 in M. C. Questier Newslett. Archpresbyterate G. Birkhead (1998) 84, ... to Babylon in mainteyinge it.
1611 Bible (King James) Gen. xi. 9 Therefore is the name of it called Babel, because the Lord dyd there ...
1614 W. Camden Remaines (rev. ed.) 40 Brings the same..to a Babellish confusion.
1617 in F. J. Furnivall Harrison's Descr. Eng. (1908) IV. 280 ...this Babylonian confusion.
1623 J. Bingham tr. Xenophon Hist. 29 ... reach to Villages of the Babylonian Territorie.
1630 J. Taylor All Wks. 114/2 The tongues confusion in our braue Exchange Shall Babell like declare thy story strange.
1631 W. Lisle Faire Æthiopian v. 74 ...Vnder the mightie Babylonish King.
1635 E. Rainbow Labour 41 Thy great Babilons which thou hast built.
1637 G. Gillespie Dispute against Eng.-Popish Ceremonies ii. vii. 28 The Babylonian baggage of ...
1640 J. Fletcher & J. Shirley Night-walker ii. sig. D3, All the chambers Are a meere babell, or another bedlam.
1642 Anat. of Separatists 3 They frame a long Babel-like prayer, made up with hums and hawes.
1642 J. Goodwin Anti-cavalierisme 32 ..those Kings that were Babylonish, and ... by whom Babylonisme ...
1643 F. Cheynell Sions Memento 33 Let us have no more Babylonian Ministers, Priests, (so they would be called).
1644 J. Vicars Babylons Beautie 30 ...(whom though mixed among the Romish Babylonians, ...)
1646 J. Vicars Burning-bush not Consumed 183 ... that could bee made of such Roman Babylonish babyish fooleries.
1650 T. Fuller Pisgah-sight of Palestine i. x. 33 The Babylonish captivity did onely snuffe Iudah, for seventy years.
1653 R. Baxter Christian Concord 101 Sion is not built by the Babel-confusions.
1654 Some Notes of Publishers in T. Jackson Exact Coll. Wks. 3137 He..travail'd through Ægypt, Babylonie, ...
1654 T. Gage Full Surv. Sion & Babylon (title-page), ...injurious nickname of Babylonish.
1655 O. Cromwell Let. Oct. (1845) II. 193 That Roman Babylon, of which the Spaniard is the great underpropper.
1656 T. Blount Glossographia at Babel, Hence 'tis we use babelish for confused.
1657 J. Smith Myst. Rhetorique 149 ...of the terrible Army of the Babylonians.
1657a R. Lovelace Poems (1864) 201 A great cathedral in the sea, Under whose Babylonian walls ...
1663 S. Butler Hudibras: First Pt. i. i. 8 A Babylonish dialect, Which learned Pedants much affect.
1665a J. Earle Char. Tavern (1675) 2 ... hooting and laughing confound the noise of Fidlers..; 'Tis a Babel of Voices.
1667 Milton Paradise Lost iii. 468 And still with vain designe New Babels, had they wherewithall, would build.
1677 R. Gilpin Dæmonol. Sacra ii. iv. 248 For from good Bishops..they are become incurable Babylonians.
1681 P. Rycaut tr. B. Gracián y Morales Critick 78 ... the Babylon of Spain, the Treasury of Riches,...
1681 T. Barlow Let. 12 July in R. Boyle Corr. (2001) V. 260, I doe not doubt, but that Rome is mysticall Babylon,...
1684 tr. R. Simon Crit. Hist. Old Test. ii. xviii. 128 Thus they mix'd the Hebrew and Babylonian Language.]
1701 M. Pix Double Distress i. 7 ..Medeans from Euphrates Banks And Babylon's exalted Towers, ...
1701a H. Maundrell Journey Aleppo to Jerusalem (1703) 16 What remains of this mighty Babel..is no more ...
1705 R. Blackmore Eliza ii. 47 From adult'rous Rome's unclean Embraces flew. They Babylonian Sorceries ...
1710 E. Settle Thalia Lacrimans 13 Ay, there's true felt Grief: That Babel Sound Does all the...
1711 R. Steele Spectator No. 167. ⁋3 The fond Builder of Babels.
1715 S. Asplin Sermon 15 ... did that execrable Monster Cromwell rear up his Babel Scheme.
1723 I. Martin Tryal & Sufferings Ded., ...and Persecution, and for all the other Abominations of the Roman Babel.
1724 A. Collins Disc. Grounds Christian Relig. ii. vii. 206 ...some modern Samaritan compil'd it chiefly out of the different copies of the Palestinian and Babylonian Jews.
1727a I. Newton Chronol. Anc. Kingdoms Amended (1728) iii. 292 ...the Babylonians and Medes.
1729 R. Savage Wanderer ii. v, The traitors rear their babel-schemes.
1731 J. Chapman Remarks Let. to Dr. Waterland 33 What a ridiculous Figure would .. Scaliger .. in Chronology,... and many other Tongues to the Babel-Confusion!
1731 J. Chapman Remarks Let. to Dr. Waterland 41 ...or allowing a formation of new languages at Babel.
1732 W. Holmes Plain Reasons against joining with Nonsubscribers 9 What kind of Babel-like confusion ...
1738 J. Wesley Psalms cxxxvii, Fast by the Babylonish Tide..We dropt our weary Limbs.
1738 Swift Reasons Humbly offered in Polit. Tracts II. The whole Babel of Sectaries joined against the Church.
1743 Gentleman's Mag. May 247/1 Some Time after the Deluge, the Babylonians put this invention in Practice.
1746c J. Hervey Medit. (1818) 39 God from on high laughs at the Babel-builder.
1757 E. Kimber Juvenile Adventures of David Ranger i. 8 ... a Babylonian confusion of sounds was heard.
1757 M. Postlethwayt Great Britain's True Syst. ix. 212 Certain it is that this Babel of Paper-Credit must have its Fall.
1765 ‘Rabby Shylock’ Jew Apologist ii. xii. 154 ..., Incurable Babylonians, infine, Are popes epithets.
1766 T. Amory Life John Buncle II. iv. 107 ...proved it to be the Great Babylon, ...which the apostles describe.
1772 J. Spencer Hermas II. xii. 165 All transient views... or build a Babel Tower.
1785 S. Felton Explanation Several Hogarth's Prints 41 ...many noises in this Babel of savage sounds would ...
1786 E. Apthorp Disc. Prophecy II. 247 This antichristian policy... and their return from their Babylonian Captivity.
1789 G. Campbell in tr. Four Gospels II. Pref. 20 Calling the language they had adopted Chaldee, Babylonian, ...
1790 E. Burke Refl. Revol. in France 41 The confused jargon of their Babylonian pulpits.
1790 M. De Fleury Brit. Liberty Established i. 11 ..., frowning, shakes their mighty Babels down.
1790 W. Cowper Let. 8 June in Wks. (1836) VI. 311 You..in such a Babylon as you must necessarily inhabit,...
1793 J. Hely tr. R. O'Flaherty Ogygia II. iii. xxx. 89 There were seventy-two matricular Babylonian tongues.
1795 Gentleman's Mag. Mar. 227 He concurs with the modern prophet in pronouncing London to be Babylon.
1797 R. Southey Lett. from Spain vi. 72 Here the Babylonian [= Roman Catholic priest] walks the street...
1798 P. Francis Let. 18 Sept. (1901) II. 432 As for silence the Abbaye of La Trappe is a mere Babel to this house.
1799 W. Hurd New Universal Hist. Rites (new ed.) App. 859/1 Babylon, once the capital of the Babylonish empire, has now no remains of if left.of Corinthian brass, Babels of stone, and pyramids of clay.and Euphrates, where stood the tower of Babel, was known us the Land of Shinar.
The above list with secondary sources removed.
eOE tr. Orosius Hist. (BL Add.) ii. i. 36 Babylonisce þæt æreste [heafodrice] & Romane þæt siðmeste hie ...
eOE tr. Orosius Hist. (BL Add.) ii. i. 38 Babylonie mid monigfealdum unryhtum & firenlustum mid...
eOE tr. Orosius Hist. (BL Add.) iii. xi. 78 ...Theleomommos & Feucestas hæfde Babylonias [L. Babylonios].
OE Ælfric Catholic Homilies: 2nd Ser. (Cambr. Gg.3.28) iv. 37 Se babilonisca cyning Nabochodonosor.
OE Daniel 164 Ða hæfde Daniel dom micelne, blæd in Babilonia mid bocerum, siððan he gesæde swefen cyninge.
OE Old Eng. Hexateuch: Gen. (Claud.) xi. 9 For ðam man nemde ða stowe Babel, for ðam ðar wæron ...
There are six primary citations before the year 1500.
1530 Tyndale Pract. Prelates sig. Fvv, The greate baude the hore of babylon [sc. the Pope].
1534 tr. L. Valla Treat. Donation vnto Syluester iv. sig. kiiiv, ... as the Babylonians dyd worshippe another dragon.
1535 Bible (Coverdale) Josh. vii. D, A costly Babilonish [Wycliffite reed] garment.
1537 tr. Original & Sprynge all Sectes f. 60, Beholde..thys Babel or confusion, and compare with ...
1542? Coverdale tr. Supplicacion vnto Kyng Ferdinandus To Rdr., Shame those wycked Babilonians ...
1549 Coverdale et al. tr. Erasmus Paraphr. Newe Test. II. 1 Pet. Argt. f. i, ... the vnderstanding of Rome by Babylon.
1553 J. Brende tr. Q. Curtius Rufus Hist. v. f. 58v, Laste in ordre came the Babilonian horsemen [L. equites Babylonii].
1554 Soveraigne Cordial sig. A.iiii, ... build they neuer so stronglie, yet shal their Babell fal down.
1567 G. Fenton tr. M. Bandello Certaine Tragicall Disc. f. 123, Thabuse of the babylonian or dyabolicall secte ...
1570 J. Foxe Actes & Monumentes (rev. ed.) II. 1464/1 ... but so did not the babilonish Priestes.
1572 T. Twyne tr. Dionysius Periegetes Surueye World sig. E v, Aboue Babylon towards the north, ...
1577 J. Fit John Diamonde Most Precious sig. Ij, ... conuayed away a goodly Babilonish Garment.
1579 J. Jones Arte Preseruing Bodie & Soule i. xix. 37 The Assyrians and Babilonians boughte their wiues..,..
1588 E. B. in D. Archdeacon tr. True Disc. Armie King of Spaine Ep. to Rdr. 8 ...made like Babel towers, ...
1588 J. de Frégeville Reformed Politicke 86 ... the same was the reuolution of the Babylonian Empire.
1590 H. Barrow in H. Barrow & J. Greenwood Coll. Certain Lett. & Conf. i. 10 ...theis Babilonish Bishopps.
1591 H. Barrow Plaine Refut. Giffardes Bk. ii. 89 We blame & forsake these Babilonish confuse assemblies, ...
1591 Troublesome Raigne Iohn ii. sig. E3, Treads downe the Strumpets pride, That sits vpon the chaire of Babylon.
1592 H. Broughton Apol. in Briefe Assertions To Rdr. sig. Av, From the end of the Babylonian captiuitie, ...
1593 G. Harvey Pierces Supererogation 177 .the heauen-surmounting Babell of Ryme.
1599 E. Spenser in L. Lewkenor tr. G. Contarini Commonw. & Gouernment Venice sig. ❧ 3v, The antique Babel,...
1600 C. Tourneur Transformed Metamorph. sig. B3v, ...O see ere long her Babel Babelliz'd.
1600 F. Hastings Apol. or Def. Watch-word 194 Your counterfaite Ward is too weake to keepe in safetie, and strength your Romish Babell or the Bishops thereof.
There are 23 primary citations from the years 1501 to 1600.
1603 H. Clapham Epist. vpon present Pestilence v. sig. B3, The sword of Romish Babilonians was prest ...
1603 J. Davies Microcosmos 208 Vp goe his Babell-Towres of Pompe and Pride, ...
1605 G. Buck Δαϕνις Πολυστεϕανος xxvi. sig. E3v, ...(Not to build Babels and Castles in the ayre) ...
1607 E. Topsell Hist. Fovre-footed Beastes 627 The Babilonians and the Alexandrians loued diuersity of colours...
1610 H. Broughton Reuelation Holy Apocalyps (new ed.) 142 ...such were Babel builders, till heathen came to God.
1610 H. Broughton Reuelation Holy Apocalyps (new ed.) xvii. 262 Babelish idolatrie of cursed Rome, ...
1611 Bible (King James) Gen. xi. 9 Therefore is the name of it called Babel, because the Lord dyd there ...
1614 W. Camden Remaines (rev. ed.) 40 Brings the same..to a Babellish confusion.
1623 J. Bingham tr. Xenophon Hist. 29 ... reach to Villages of the Babylonian Territorie.
1630 J. Taylor All Wks. 114/2 The tongues confusion in our braue Exchange Shall Babell like declare thy story strange.
1631 W. Lisle Faire Æthiopian v. 74 ...Vnder the mightie Babylonish King.
1635 E. Rainbow Labour 41 Thy great Babilons which thou hast built.
1637 G. Gillespie Dispute against Eng.-Popish Ceremonies ii. vii. 28 The Babylonian baggage of ...
1640 J. Fletcher & J. Shirley Night-walker ii. sig. D3, All the chambers Are a meere babell, or another bedlam.
1642 Anat. of Separatists 3 They frame a long Babel-like prayer, made up with hums and hawes.
1642 J. Goodwin Anti-cavalierisme 32 ..those Kings that were Babylonish, and ... by whom Babylonisme ...
1643 F. Cheynell Sions Memento 33 Let us have no more Babylonian Ministers, Priests, (so they would be called).
1644 J. Vicars Babylons Beautie 30 ...(whom though mixed among the Romish Babylonians, ...)
1646 J. Vicars Burning-bush not Consumed 183 ... that could bee made of such Roman Babylonish babyish fooleries.
1650 T. Fuller Pisgah-sight of Palestine i. x. 33 The Babylonish captivity did onely snuffe Iudah, for seventy years.
1653 R. Baxter Christian Concord 101 Sion is not built by the Babel-confusions.
1654 Some Notes of Publishers in T. Jackson Exact Coll. Wks. 3137 He..travail'd through Ægypt, Babylonie, ...
1654 T. Gage Full Surv. Sion & Babylon (title-page), ...injurious nickname of Babylonish.
1656 T. Blount Glossographia at Babel, Hence 'tis we use babelish for confused.
1657 J. Smith Myst. Rhetorique 149 ...of the terrible Army of the Babylonians.
1663 S. Butler Hudibras: First Pt. i. i. 8 A Babylonish dialect, Which learned Pedants much affect.
1667 Milton Paradise Lost iii. 468 And still with vain designe New Babels, had they wherewithall, would build.
1677 R. Gilpin Dæmonol. Sacra ii. iv. 248 For from good Bishops..they are become incurable Babylonians.
1681 P. Rycaut tr. B. Gracián y Morales Critick 78 ... the Babylon of Spain, the Treasury of Riches,...
1684 tr. R. Simon Crit. Hist. Old Test. ii. xviii. 128 Thus they mix'd the Hebrew and Babylonian Language.]
There are 30 primary citations from the years 1601 to 1700.
1701 M. Pix Double Distress i. 7 ..Medeans from Euphrates Banks And Babylon's exalted Towers, ...
1705 R. Blackmore Eliza ii. 47 From adult'rous Rome's unclean Embraces flew. They Babylonian Sorceries ...
1710 E. Settle Thalia Lacrimans 13 Ay, there's true felt Grief: That Babel Sound Does all the...
1711 R. Steele Spectator No. 167. ⁋3 The fond Builder of Babels.
1715 S. Asplin Sermon 15 ... did that execrable Monster Cromwell rear up his Babel Scheme.
1723 I. Martin Tryal & Sufferings Ded., ...and Persecution, and for all the other Abominations of the Roman Babel.
1724 A. Collins Disc. Grounds Christian Relig. ii. vii. 206 ...some modern Samaritan compil'd it chiefly out of the different copies of the Palestinian and Babylonian Jews.
1729 R. Savage Wanderer ii. v, The traitors rear their babel-schemes.
1731 J. Chapman Remarks Let. to Dr. Waterland 33 What a ridiculous Figure would .. Scaliger .. in Chronology,... and many other Tongues to the Babel-Confusion!
1731 J. Chapman Remarks Let. to Dr. Waterland 41 ...or allowing a formation of new languages at Babel.
1732 W. Holmes Plain Reasons against joining with Nonsubscribers 9 What kind of Babel-like confusion ...
1738 J. Wesley Psalms cxxxvii, Fast by the Babylonish Tide..We dropt our weary Limbs.
1738 Swift Reasons Humbly offered in Polit. Tracts II. The whole Babel of Sectaries joined against the Church.
1743 Gentleman's Mag. May 247/1 Some Time after the Deluge, the Babylonians put this invention in Practice.
1757 E. Kimber Juvenile Adventures of David Ranger i. 8 ... a Babylonian confusion of sounds was heard.
1757 M. Postlethwayt Great Britain's True Syst. ix. 212 Certain it is that this Babel of Paper-Credit must have its Fall.
1765 ‘Rabby Shylock’ Jew Apologist ii. xii. 154 ..., Incurable Babylonians, infine, Are popes epithets.
1766 T. Amory Life John Buncle II. iv. 107 ...proved it to be the Great Babylon, ...which the apostles describe.
1772 J. Spencer Hermas II. xii. 165 All transient views... or build a Babel Tower.
1785 S. Felton Explanation Several Hogarth's Prints 41 ...many noises in this Babel of savage sounds would ...
1786 E. Apthorp Disc. Prophecy II. 247 This antichristian policy... and their return from their Babylonian Captivity.
1789 G. Campbell in tr. Four Gospels II. Pref. 20 Calling the language they had adopted Chaldee, Babylonian, ...
1790 E. Burke Refl. Revol. in France 41 The confused jargon of their Babylonian pulpits.
1790 M. De Fleury Brit. Liberty Established i. 11 ..., frowning, shakes their mighty Babels down.
1793 J. Hely tr. R. O'Flaherty Ogygia II. iii. xxx. 89 There were seventy-two matricular Babylonian tongues.
1795 Gentleman's Mag. Mar. 227 He concurs with the modern prophet in pronouncing London to be Babylon.
1797 R. Southey Lett. from Spain vi. 72 Here the Babylonian [= Roman Catholic priest] walks the street...
1799 W. Hurd New Universal Hist. Rites (new ed.) App. 859/1 Babylon, once the capital of the Babylonish empire, has now no remains of if left.of Corinthian brass, Babels of stone, and pyramids of clay.and Euphrates, where stood the tower of Babel, was known us the Land of Shinar.
There are 28 primary citations from the years 1701 to 1800.
Discussion
The knowledge of Babylon may have been known before the year 1500, however, we can not accurately date the years of the Early Old English and Old English chronicles. Even the editors of the OED acknowledge that at least two of the words were later re-introduced into the English Language (Babylon and Babylonish), while we are inclined to believe that these documents have been misdated by several centuries.
We see from multiple examples cited above that before the age of printing, place names were not fixed to one location. In the modern age, we take for granted that cities, like people, have one name. However, with names like Istanbul (the city) and Jerusalem (the city of peace), we can understand that names were only fixed recently to specific places. Additionally, names of rules tend to conceal that to clarify. What ancient writer would not describe their ruler as Holy (Pius), revered (August), merciful (Clement) or happy (Felix)?
Various names for the same city can also be found because writers spoke in different languages and at times used foreign names for cities and people.
Apprentice Graham's paper on Ba'al worship demonstrates why the Jews for countless generations continued to backslide into Orthodox Christianity. We do not recognize this obvious interpretation because we "know" the events in the Old Testament occur before not after the New Testament. Master's research on the two most striking parallels for the fall of Constantinople in 1453 and Jerusalem in the alleged year 70 demonstrate both descriptions relate to the same event.
Conclusion
Modern archeologists, politicians and Bible commentators may find our conclusions unsatisfactory, however, we are unable to assign neither a date nor a place to Babylon. If we admit the Apocalypse into our discussion, we would instantly realize that the multiple mercantile and sea faring references to Babylon ("for your merchants were the great men of the earth" and "every shipmaster and every passenger and sailor, and as many as make their living by the sea, stood at a distance") can only refer to a port city and this excludes any location in an Iraqi desert. The more excitable commentator would like to believe that Saint John is describing the missing sections of Plato's Atlantis where an stone is thrown into the sea and is likened to Babylon who will not be found anymore.
From the citations of the OED, we find that the various meanings and usages of Babel and Babylon only compound our frustration for one solution to the dating of Babylon.
We conclude that is ironic that the words associated with the confusing of the languages should themselves be found to contain various meanings for many people through many centuries.
Addendum
Apprentice Zachary's initial attempt at research must be acknowledged for his thoroughness, clarity of his reasoning and conclusions. I am pleased that Apprentice Zachary's work, when combined with Apprentice Graham's paper and yours truly's contribution, form a trilogy of philological research.
Empire, 1553;
eOE tr. Orosius Hist. (BL Add.) ii. i. 36 Babylonisce þæt æreste [heafodrice] & Romane þæt siðmeste hie ...
eOE tr. Orosius Hist. (BL Add.) ii. i. 38 Babylonie mid monigfealdum unryhtum & firenlustum mid...
eOE tr. Orosius Hist. (BL Add.) iii. xi. 78 ...Theleomommos & Feucestas hæfde Babylonias [L. Babylonios].
OE Ælfric Catholic Homilies: 2nd Ser. (Cambr. Gg.3.28) iv. 37 Se babilonisca cyning Nabochodonosor.
OE Daniel 164 Ða hæfde Daniel dom micelne, blæd in Babilonia mid bocerum, siððan he gesæde swefen cyninge.
OE Old Eng. Hexateuch: Gen. (Claud.) xi. 9 For ðam man nemde ða stowe Babel, for ðam ðar wæron ...
There are six primary citations before the year 1500.
1530 Tyndale Pract. Prelates sig. Fvv, The greate baude the hore of babylon [sc. the Pope].
1534 tr. L. Valla Treat. Donation vnto Syluester iv. sig. kiiiv, ... as the Babylonians dyd worshippe another dragon.
1535 Bible (Coverdale) Josh. vii. D, A costly Babilonish [Wycliffite reed] garment.
1537 tr. Original & Sprynge all Sectes f. 60, Beholde..thys Babel or confusion, and compare with ...
1542? Coverdale tr. Supplicacion vnto Kyng Ferdinandus To Rdr., Shame those wycked Babilonians ...
1549 Coverdale et al. tr. Erasmus Paraphr. Newe Test. II. 1 Pet. Argt. f. i, ... the vnderstanding of Rome by Babylon.
1553 J. Brende tr. Q. Curtius Rufus Hist. v. f. 58v, Laste in ordre came the Babilonian horsemen [L. equites Babylonii].
1554 Soveraigne Cordial sig. A.iiii, ... build they neuer so stronglie, yet shal their Babell fal down.
1567 G. Fenton tr. M. Bandello Certaine Tragicall Disc. f. 123, Thabuse of the babylonian or dyabolicall secte ...
1570 J. Foxe Actes & Monumentes (rev. ed.) II. 1464/1 ... but so did not the babilonish Priestes.
1572 T. Twyne tr. Dionysius Periegetes Surueye World sig. E v, Aboue Babylon towards the north, ...
1577 J. Fit John Diamonde Most Precious sig. Ij, ... conuayed away a goodly Babilonish Garment.
1579 J. Jones Arte Preseruing Bodie & Soule i. xix. 37 The Assyrians and Babilonians boughte their wiues..,..
1588 E. B. in D. Archdeacon tr. True Disc. Armie King of Spaine Ep. to Rdr. 8 ...made like Babel towers, ...
1588 J. de Frégeville Reformed Politicke 86 ... the same was the reuolution of the Babylonian Empire.
1590 H. Barrow in H. Barrow & J. Greenwood Coll. Certain Lett. & Conf. i. 10 ...theis Babilonish Bishopps.
1591 H. Barrow Plaine Refut. Giffardes Bk. ii. 89 We blame & forsake these Babilonish confuse assemblies, ...
1591 Troublesome Raigne Iohn ii. sig. E3, Treads downe the Strumpets pride, That sits vpon the chaire of Babylon.
1592 H. Broughton Apol. in Briefe Assertions To Rdr. sig. Av, From the end of the Babylonian captiuitie, ...
1593 G. Harvey Pierces Supererogation 177 .the heauen-surmounting Babell of Ryme.
1599 E. Spenser in L. Lewkenor tr. G. Contarini Commonw. & Gouernment Venice sig. ❧ 3v, The antique Babel,...
1600 C. Tourneur Transformed Metamorph. sig. B3v, ...O see ere long her Babel Babelliz'd.
1600 F. Hastings Apol. or Def. Watch-word 194 Your counterfaite Ward is too weake to keepe in safetie, and strength your Romish Babell or the Bishops thereof.
There are 23 primary citations from the years 1501 to 1600.
1603 H. Clapham Epist. vpon present Pestilence v. sig. B3, The sword of Romish Babilonians was prest ...
1603 J. Davies Microcosmos 208 Vp goe his Babell-Towres of Pompe and Pride, ...
1605 G. Buck Δαϕνις Πολυστεϕανος xxvi. sig. E3v, ...(Not to build Babels and Castles in the ayre) ...
1607 E. Topsell Hist. Fovre-footed Beastes 627 The Babilonians and the Alexandrians loued diuersity of colours...
1610 H. Broughton Reuelation Holy Apocalyps (new ed.) 142 ...such were Babel builders, till heathen came to God.
1610 H. Broughton Reuelation Holy Apocalyps (new ed.) xvii. 262 Babelish idolatrie of cursed Rome, ...
1611 Bible (King James) Gen. xi. 9 Therefore is the name of it called Babel, because the Lord dyd there ...
1614 W. Camden Remaines (rev. ed.) 40 Brings the same..to a Babellish confusion.
1623 J. Bingham tr. Xenophon Hist. 29 ... reach to Villages of the Babylonian Territorie.
1630 J. Taylor All Wks. 114/2 The tongues confusion in our braue Exchange Shall Babell like declare thy story strange.
1631 W. Lisle Faire Æthiopian v. 74 ...Vnder the mightie Babylonish King.
1635 E. Rainbow Labour 41 Thy great Babilons which thou hast built.
1637 G. Gillespie Dispute against Eng.-Popish Ceremonies ii. vii. 28 The Babylonian baggage of ...
1640 J. Fletcher & J. Shirley Night-walker ii. sig. D3, All the chambers Are a meere babell, or another bedlam.
1642 Anat. of Separatists 3 They frame a long Babel-like prayer, made up with hums and hawes.
1642 J. Goodwin Anti-cavalierisme 32 ..those Kings that were Babylonish, and ... by whom Babylonisme ...
1643 F. Cheynell Sions Memento 33 Let us have no more Babylonian Ministers, Priests, (so they would be called).
1644 J. Vicars Babylons Beautie 30 ...(whom though mixed among the Romish Babylonians, ...)
1646 J. Vicars Burning-bush not Consumed 183 ... that could bee made of such Roman Babylonish babyish fooleries.
1650 T. Fuller Pisgah-sight of Palestine i. x. 33 The Babylonish captivity did onely snuffe Iudah, for seventy years.
1653 R. Baxter Christian Concord 101 Sion is not built by the Babel-confusions.
1654 Some Notes of Publishers in T. Jackson Exact Coll. Wks. 3137 He..travail'd through Ægypt, Babylonie, ...
1654 T. Gage Full Surv. Sion & Babylon (title-page), ...injurious nickname of Babylonish.
1656 T. Blount Glossographia at Babel, Hence 'tis we use babelish for confused.
1657 J. Smith Myst. Rhetorique 149 ...of the terrible Army of the Babylonians.
1663 S. Butler Hudibras: First Pt. i. i. 8 A Babylonish dialect, Which learned Pedants much affect.
1667 Milton Paradise Lost iii. 468 And still with vain designe New Babels, had they wherewithall, would build.
1677 R. Gilpin Dæmonol. Sacra ii. iv. 248 For from good Bishops..they are become incurable Babylonians.
1681 P. Rycaut tr. B. Gracián y Morales Critick 78 ... the Babylon of Spain, the Treasury of Riches,...
1684 tr. R. Simon Crit. Hist. Old Test. ii. xviii. 128 Thus they mix'd the Hebrew and Babylonian Language.]
There are 30 primary citations from the years 1601 to 1700.
1701 M. Pix Double Distress i. 7 ..Medeans from Euphrates Banks And Babylon's exalted Towers, ...
1705 R. Blackmore Eliza ii. 47 From adult'rous Rome's unclean Embraces flew. They Babylonian Sorceries ...
1710 E. Settle Thalia Lacrimans 13 Ay, there's true felt Grief: That Babel Sound Does all the...
1711 R. Steele Spectator No. 167. ⁋3 The fond Builder of Babels.
1715 S. Asplin Sermon 15 ... did that execrable Monster Cromwell rear up his Babel Scheme.
1723 I. Martin Tryal & Sufferings Ded., ...and Persecution, and for all the other Abominations of the Roman Babel.
1724 A. Collins Disc. Grounds Christian Relig. ii. vii. 206 ...some modern Samaritan compil'd it chiefly out of the different copies of the Palestinian and Babylonian Jews.
1729 R. Savage Wanderer ii. v, The traitors rear their babel-schemes.
1731 J. Chapman Remarks Let. to Dr. Waterland 33 What a ridiculous Figure would .. Scaliger .. in Chronology,... and many other Tongues to the Babel-Confusion!
1731 J. Chapman Remarks Let. to Dr. Waterland 41 ...or allowing a formation of new languages at Babel.
1732 W. Holmes Plain Reasons against joining with Nonsubscribers 9 What kind of Babel-like confusion ...
1738 J. Wesley Psalms cxxxvii, Fast by the Babylonish Tide..We dropt our weary Limbs.
1738 Swift Reasons Humbly offered in Polit. Tracts II. The whole Babel of Sectaries joined against the Church.
1743 Gentleman's Mag. May 247/1 Some Time after the Deluge, the Babylonians put this invention in Practice.
1757 E. Kimber Juvenile Adventures of David Ranger i. 8 ... a Babylonian confusion of sounds was heard.
1757 M. Postlethwayt Great Britain's True Syst. ix. 212 Certain it is that this Babel of Paper-Credit must have its Fall.
1765 ‘Rabby Shylock’ Jew Apologist ii. xii. 154 ..., Incurable Babylonians, infine, Are popes epithets.
1766 T. Amory Life John Buncle II. iv. 107 ...proved it to be the Great Babylon, ...which the apostles describe.
1772 J. Spencer Hermas II. xii. 165 All transient views... or build a Babel Tower.
1785 S. Felton Explanation Several Hogarth's Prints 41 ...many noises in this Babel of savage sounds would ...
1786 E. Apthorp Disc. Prophecy II. 247 This antichristian policy... and their return from their Babylonian Captivity.
1789 G. Campbell in tr. Four Gospels II. Pref. 20 Calling the language they had adopted Chaldee, Babylonian, ...
1790 E. Burke Refl. Revol. in France 41 The confused jargon of their Babylonian pulpits.
1790 M. De Fleury Brit. Liberty Established i. 11 ..., frowning, shakes their mighty Babels down.
1793 J. Hely tr. R. O'Flaherty Ogygia II. iii. xxx. 89 There were seventy-two matricular Babylonian tongues.
1795 Gentleman's Mag. Mar. 227 He concurs with the modern prophet in pronouncing London to be Babylon.
1797 R. Southey Lett. from Spain vi. 72 Here the Babylonian [= Roman Catholic priest] walks the street...
1799 W. Hurd New Universal Hist. Rites (new ed.) App. 859/1 Babylon, once the capital of the Babylonish empire, has now no remains of if left.of Corinthian brass, Babels of stone, and pyramids of clay.and Euphrates, where stood the tower of Babel, was known us the Land of Shinar.
There are 28 primary citations from the years 1701 to 1800.
Discussion
The knowledge of Babylon may have been known before the year 1500, however, we can not accurately date the years of the Early Old English and Old English chronicles. Even the editors of the OED acknowledge that at least two of the words were later re-introduced into the English Language (Babylon and Babylonish), while we are inclined to believe that these documents have been misdated by several centuries.
We see from multiple examples cited above that before the age of printing, place names were not fixed to one location. In the modern age, we take for granted that cities, like people, have one name. However, with names like Istanbul (the city) and Jerusalem (the city of peace), we can understand that names were only fixed recently to specific places. Additionally, names of rules tend to conceal that to clarify. What ancient writer would not describe their ruler as Holy (Pius), revered (August), merciful (Clement) or happy (Felix)?
Various names for the same city can also be found because writers spoke in different languages and at times used foreign names for cities and people.
Apprentice Graham's paper on Ba'al worship demonstrates why the Jews for countless generations continued to backslide into Orthodox Christianity. We do not recognize this obvious interpretation because we "know" the events in the Old Testament occur before not after the New Testament. Master's research on the two most striking parallels for the fall of Constantinople in 1453 and Jerusalem in the alleged year 70 demonstrate both descriptions relate to the same event.
Conclusion
Modern archeologists, politicians and Bible commentators may find our conclusions unsatisfactory, however, we are unable to assign neither a date nor a place to Babylon. If we admit the Apocalypse into our discussion, we would instantly realize that the multiple mercantile and sea faring references to Babylon ("for your merchants were the great men of the earth" and "every shipmaster and every passenger and sailor, and as many as make their living by the sea, stood at a distance") can only refer to a port city and this excludes any location in an Iraqi desert. The more excitable commentator would like to believe that Saint John is describing the missing sections of Plato's Atlantis where an stone is thrown into the sea and is likened to Babylon who will not be found anymore.
From the citations of the OED, we find that the various meanings and usages of Babel and Babylon only compound our frustration for one solution to the dating of Babylon.
We conclude that is ironic that the words associated with the confusing of the languages should themselves be found to contain various meanings for many people through many centuries.
Addendum
Apprentice Zachary's initial attempt at research must be acknowledged for his thoroughness, clarity of his reasoning and conclusions. I am pleased that Apprentice Zachary's work, when combined with Apprentice Graham's paper and yours truly's contribution, form a trilogy of philological research.
Empire, 1553;