Definitions

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • proper noun Capital of Babylonia in the 2nd and 1st century BC.
  • proper noun Any city of great wealth, luxury and vice.
  • proper noun Western civilization, seen as corrupt and materialistic, and contrasted with Zion.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun the chief city of ancient Mesopotamia and capital of the ancient kingdom of Babylonia

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin Babylōn, from Ancient Greek Βαβυλών, from Akkadian bāb ili ‘Gate of God’, translation of Sumerian Ka-dingir; the name of the ancient Chaldean capital and Biblical city of the Apocalypse.

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Examples

  • Image available THE HOLY CITY OF BABYLON the Chaldeans, also a Semitic tribe, re-established Babylon and made that city the most important capital of that day.

    The Story of Mankind 1921

  • In our interpretation of chapter 14 we showed that the angel clearly applied the term Babylon to the worshipers of the second beast -- Protestantism -- as well as to those of the first beast.

    The Last Reformation 1913

  • Protestantism, as well as her mother Romanism, has been guilty of shedding innocent blood; and as the term Babylon includes both these divisions, when the great city is thrown down with violence, Romanism and Protestantism will sink together, and then this awful treasure -- the blood of prophets and of saints -- shall be brought to light in that last great day of God Almighty.

    The Revelation Explained 1913

  • Whether it was intended primarily for the support of the captives in Babylon is not certain, probably it was; but comforts thus generally expressed ought not to be so confined.

    Commentary on the Whole Bible Volume IV (Isaiah to Malachi) 1721

  • When the Jews visited the town of Bab-Illi (which we call Babylon) many centuries after the last of the Sumerians had died, they had been much impressed by the strange-looking towers which stood high amidst the green fields of Mesopotamia.

    Ancient Man The Beginning of Civilizations Hendrik Willem Van Loon 1913

  • Rome -- which he termed Babylon -- that ere so many centuries were gone, her walls would lie even with the ground, her temples moulder in ruins, her language become extinct, and her people confounded with other nations and lost.

    Aurelian or, Rome in the Third Century William Ware 1824

  • We are not left in the dark with respect to the precise meaning of this term Babylon, it is given in the 17th chapter and 5th verse of this book.

    Letters, and sketches of sermons : in three volumes 1812

  • Subsequently we find him in "Babylon," whence he wrote this First Epistle to the Israelite believers of the dispersion, and the Gentile Christians united in Christ, in Pontus,

    Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible 1871

  • The state of the Jews in Babylon is represented by dead and dry bones (Ezek. xxxvii.

    Commentary on the Whole Bible Volume IV (Isaiah to Malachi) 1721

  • SF examples: the telepaths raised by the Psi Corps in Babylon 5, and the children being raised and trained by the Jedi Academy.

    MIND MELD: Bad Guys We Love to Hate: The Best Film Villains in SF/F/H (with Various Videos of Villainy) 2009

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  • Railroad telegraphers' shorthand for "Advise material of theatrical company(ies) in trunks". --US Railway Association, Standard Cipher Code, 1906.

    January 20, 2013