Bae

This word is apparently used in speech as well as text. In reality, it's probably a backronym – in other words, it didn't originally stand for anything, but an expanded meaning was invented at a later date.

It's used to refer to one's 'significant other', and according to the Urban Dictionary it emerged among African Americans as a way of pronouncing 'babe'. Time magazine agrees: "Slangsters do love to embrace the 'dropped letter' versions of slang words. When cool gets old, there is coo. When crazy gets tiresome, there is cray."

© Haydn Thompson 2020