Baba Yaga
In Russian, Finno-Ugric, Polish and Bulgarian tales, a character who lives in a hut standing on chicken legs and who flies through the air in a mortar, using the pestle as a rudder.
Pronunciation
- IPA: /ˌbɑːbə ˈjɑːɡə/
- enPR: bä'bə yäʹgə
- Context: Southern England · Audio
- Rhymes: -ɑːɡə
Proper noun
- In Russian, Finno-Ugric, Polish and Bulgarian tales, a character who lives in a hut standing on chicken legs and who flies through the air in a mortar, using the pestle as a rudder.
Slavic mythology
- [L]ooking like the hut, minus the fat chicken legs, of Baba Yaga, the old witch with iron teeth and an appetite for a human supper. - 2020, Ben Creed, City of Ghosts, London: Welbeck Publishing, page 143
- But elbow injuries are the Baba Yaga for pitchers, an ever-present danger. - 2023 April 7, Nick Groke, C. Trent Rosecrans, “Analyzing MLB [Major League Baseball]’s most cumbersome contracts — and trying to find a way out for each team”, in The Athletic, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, archived from the original on 17 Aug 2025
Origin
Ultimately from Proto-Slavic *baba ęga (literally “hag of terror”), probably through Russian Ба́ба-Яга́ (Bába-Jagá).