Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (S.Afr.) a hangover; thus babbalaas/babbelas/babelas, suffering from a hangover; babalaasdop, a drink taken to alleviate the hangover, the ‘hair of the dog’.

1946		Partridge DU (1949) 15: Babbeljas. A hangover: (after a debauch): South Africa. C.20.
1947		H.C. Bosman Jacaranda in the Night (1981) I 346: ‘Basson is babelas again,’ one of the labourers said, meaning that he was suffering from a hangover.
1959		L. Longmore Dispossessed 218: Regular customers are usually given a free drink on certain occasions in order to remove what is called babalazi.
1973		Cape Herald n.p.: The price of a bout of bacchanalian altar is still the groggy head [...] rubber knees and the floating stomach – the age-old ‘babbelas’.
1977		C. Hope Ducktails in Gray Theatre Two (1981) 51: jimmie: What you potting in there? bo-bo: Brandy. jimmie: Give you a terrible babalas, Bo-bo.
1980		M. Matshoba ‘To Kill a Man’s Pride’ in Mutloatse Forced Landing 111: His hands shook violently when he lit and shielded the flame. ‘Ei! Babalaz has me.’.
1984		(con. 1976) B. Simon ‘Black Dog’ Born in the RSA (1997) 27: I could smell last week’s babbalaas on my body. Which reminds me! Make sharp! I have to hit the off-licence store.
1985		B. Simon ‘Outers’ Born in the RSA (1997) 59: Look at me, babbalaas again. I must give up these bladdy chommies of mine – bad influence.
1990		P. Hotz Muzukuru 32: All the other blokes were too babbelas.
1996		CyberBraai Lex. at www.matriots.com 🌐 BABBELAS: It sounds like something Biblical but is, in fact, the word which describes that awful period – the morning after the night of unwise indulgence.
1997		Manaka & Davis Beyond Echoes of Soweto 43: It’s a shebeen culture—where the rule for the babalaz people is: to avoid babalaz, you have to stay drunk.
1999		K.A. perkins Black S. African Women: Plays 33: They can use the jacuzzi or the sauna to clear their babalas if they don't want to drink it away.
2007		J.D. Rhoades Safe and Sound 178: Are you all right, Fern? You sound like you got a bit of a babalaas.
2008		Surfing S. Africa 257: BABALAS (bub-ba-lus) Hangover from hell. The Babalas is no mythical beast, especially when you look at yourself in the mirror.
2010		Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) 14 Nov. 🌐 Guys wake up! The party is over. Get over the babbalaas and start thinking.
2010		‘A-Z of South African lingo’ in IOL News (Western Cape) 3 June. 🌐 B for Babalas: Hangover, taken from the Zulu word isibhabalazi. Usually treated with a sachet of Grandpa (a local headache powder) or a regmaker - another beer.

2. attrib. use of sense 1.

1963

Casey ‘Kid’ Motsisi ‘Mita’ Casey and Co. (1978) 74: You keep that babalaas bek of yours shut before I bash it in with this pot.