What Does BAE MeanDating Advice 

What Does BAE Mean?

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Has anyone ever called you BAE, used it in a text message to you, or you’ve seen it online? Well, don’t fear: I’m here to break down the latest dating slang, and in today’s post, we’re taking a closer look at: What does BAE mean? (And no, it doesn’t have anything to do with Beyonce.)

So, let’s get right to it.

 

What does BAE mean?

BAE, pronounced like bay, as in bay leaf, has several different meanings, depending on who you choose to believe. It is thought that it was first used as a shortened version of babe or baby, used in “Black slang” – literally just taking out that one ‘b’.

So, instead of, “Hey, baby!” it would be, “Hey, BAE!”

JoJo’s hit, Leave (Get Out) uses BAE as a short version as baby/babe, and there’s also Come Get It Bae, a 2014 song by Pharrell Williams and Miley Cyrus. In the same year, it was crowned Word of the Year runner-up by Oxford Dictionaries.

Dictionary estimates that the slang, BAE, has been around since 2000-2005, making it into the lyrics of hip-hop songs before finally making it into mainstream pop and then mainstream language.

 

BAE doesn’t mean…

Some folks think that BAE is an abbreviation rather than shortened slang. Instead of babe or baby, it’s used as an abbreviation of ‘before anything else’ – as in, the person that comes before anything else, love of your life, etc.

There’s nothing “wrong” with this, but it’s not the true origin. Not that it matters, of course. If you and your loved ones use it in place of ‘before anything else,’ continue to do so. The language police aren’t going to get you, or anything.

That one guy who does really well at pub quizzes will, more than likely, mansplain it to you if you get it wrong, though.

 

BAE: A Summary

So, you’re at the end. Here’s what you’ve (hopefully) learned:

  1. BAE stands for before anything else
  2. But it probably started as a slang version of baby or babe
  3. The word can be used for friends, lovers, family members, and other loved ones
  4. It more than likely originated in the early 2000s

Sources:

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If you’ve found this useful today, why not take a peek at some of the other posts on this lil’ dating and sex blog, too:

 

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