Or babālu, babba/ālu.
No definitive etymology can be suggested.
CAD, AHw.: bābu.
Perhaps a WS word attested once in the left column of Malku. The only direct WS parallel seems to be Arb. babb- = ʔal-ġulāmu s-samīnu (TA 2 42).
Probably a Hurrian word of an ultimate Indo-European (Mitanni-Aryan) origin.
The Sumerian correspondence suggests a meaning like “to live” or “to lie down, to pasture” for baTāmu, for which no etymological support could be found.
No etymology can be suggested.