O znaczeniu bazy apelatywnej bab’-i, babi-a w toponimii

The paper departs from new work of K. Zierhoffer and Z. Zierhoffer who have discovered - on the basis of old Polish chronicles and East Slavonic dialects - that the word 'baba' used to have the meaning 'a marshy, boggy, grassy place' in toponymy. The authors claim that in Babimost et Potopisko, a note written in 1257, it was 'a swamp, a boggy place on marsh'. These and other notes allow us to state that in the old toponymy, the apelative base bab'-i, babi-a should be understood in such meaning. Thus the explanation of the meaning of the name of one of the oldest settlements outside Bydgoszcz castle Babiawies should be verified and it should be assumed that, according to its name, it was 'a settlement situated at a marshy, boggy place on the bank of the Brda river'. According to historical chronicles, the inhabitants of Babia Wies had to deliver timber to the castle, pay the rent and build a dam to prevent floods.