'babouche' originates from French, specifically the word 'babouche', where it was borrowed via Arabic 'bābūš' from Persian 'pāpūš', in which Persian 'pā' meant 'foot' and 'pūš' meant 'covering'.

'babouche' changed from the Persian word 'pāpūš' to Arabic 'bābūš', was adopted into French as 'babouche' in the Middle Ages/early modern period, and eventually entered modern English unchanged as 'babouche'.

Initially it meant a general 'foot-covering' or shoe ('pāpūš'), but over time it became specialized to mean the soft, often backless North African slipper now called 'babouche'.