Entry · catalog no. 1129
bae
/ /beɪ/ /BAY
noun · nationwide · 2000s
✓ Verified
1.
Your sweetheart; the person you claim as yours. A term of tenderness, cooler and softer than saying it outright.
“Bae pulled up with plates before I even thought to ask.”
Origin & Attribution
A shortening of babe or baby in African American speech, showing up in rap by the mid-2000s, years before the internet turned it into a 2013–2014 craze. The "before anyone else" acronym is a later folk invention, not the source.
2000s
Circulates in rap as a shortening of babe/baby
2014
Crosses over with Pharrell's "Come Get It Bae"
2010s
Peaks online, then cools
Region of origin
West
Midwest
N.East
South
Nationwide / diaspora
nationwide · 2000s
Spoken by
nationwide
$BAEThe Record · cultural traction
▲ Fading21 yrs
ahead of the mainstream
80/100
peak cultural energy
Introduced to English by the culture — logged here before the mainstream caught on.
Cultural usage — the recordMainstream search interest
First used
2005
in the culture
Recorded here
2026
point of first record
Cultural energy indexed from documented usage, search interest, and citation frequency. The recorded date is the archive’s permanent point of record.
Hear it spoken
By region — how it actually sounds
@auntiereg
Atlanta, GA
@deltasoul
Memphis, TN
Contribute your pronunciation
Citations & Sources
■
Pharrell Williams, "Come Get It Bae" — song · 2014
submitted
■
+ Cite a sourceDocumented in mid-2000s rap lyrics — corpus
submitted
See also