köken: Literally, “Chinese tale”. The origin of the expression is unclear, however, there are two possible folk etymologies: * From the book The Travels of Marco Polo by Italian explorer Marco Polo: Returning from China to Italy, the traveler told stories of mythological animals and incredible fables from such Asian region that were not very believable and unrealistic; therefore, many of these passages…
köken: Uncertain. * From Old French balle, from Medieval Latin balla, from Frankish *ballu. * From Lombardic *palla, *balla. Both etymologies ultimately from Proto-Germanic *ballô, *balluz (“ball”). Doublet of palla. Cognate with Sicilian baḍḍa, whence the dialectal doublet badda.
köken: From בָּבָא־מעשׂה (bovo-mayse), the popular name of the Bovo-Bukh, by assimilation of the foreign proper name בָּבָא (bovo) to Yiddish באָבע (bobe, “grandmother”).