Today’s New York Times article on babka’s role in Chanukkah observance features the expert knowledge of Professor Darra Goldstein:

“Babka comes from baba, a very tall, delicate yet rich yeast-risen cake eaten in Western Russia and Eastern Poland,” said Darra Goldstein, a professor of Russian at Williams College. “A very elaborate babka was eaten at Easter.”

“It can include rose oil, lemon zest, bitter almonds, cinnamon, cardamom, nutmeg, lemon, bergamot or rose water,” she said, “but the most basic one has the finest flour, yeast, milk, with a little sugar and lots of egg yolks.”

The Italians call their version panettone, the French baba au rhum, and the Viennese and Alsatians kugelhopf.

Jews called it babka, the diminutive of baba, and gave it their own twist when they came to the United States. They filled it with chocolate and lots of cinnamon and sugar, making it more like a coffee cake with a streusel topping. Although not a Hanukkah dish per se, chocolate babka is served by many families at Hanukkah, like other iconic Jewish dishes.

In both Polish and Yiddish, babka is a diminutive of baba, meaning old woman or grandmother.

“Babka, in its original form, was stout and round, just like grandmothers used to be before they went to aerobics classes and practiced yoga,” writes Arthur Schwartz, whose book “Arthur Schwartz’s Jewish Home Cooking” is due to be published in April by Ten Speed Press. (Ms. Goldstein feels this explanation may be apocryphal, though.)

Happy Chanukkah (in that or any other transliteration deemed appropriate) to all those observing or celebrating this year.