Babe
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Written by a house AI from the entry below, in your language. The entry itself is the source.
babe¹
- /beɪb/
Rhymes with -eɪb
Where it comes from
Etymology tree
Proto-Indo-European *bʰā-
Proto-Germanic *bō-redup.
Proto-Germanic *babô
Proto-West Germanic *babō
Old English *baba
Middle English babe
English babe
From Middle English babe, a variant of earlier baban, perhaps from Old English *baba (“boy, child”), from Proto-West Germanic *babō, from Proto-Germanic *babô, reduplicated variant of *ba-, *bō- (“father, brother, close male relation”).
cognates and related terms
Related to Old Frisian bobba (“child”) (whence North Frisian babbe, babb, babe (“child”)), Old High German Babo (a male forename), see boy. Otherwise, origin obscure. Compare mama, dada, papa. Welsh baban (“baby”), believed by Skeat to be a mutation of maban, a diminutive of mab (“son”), is probably rather a borrowing from English. Cognate also with English bub.
noun babes
- A baby or infant; a very young human or animal. These events came to pass when he was but a babe.
- An attractive person, especially a young woman. She's a real babe!
- A darling (a term of endearment). Hey, babe, how's about you and me getting together?
Similar: doll, fox, See: Thesaurus:beautiful woman, beautiful person
Babe²
Where it comes from
Use of the common noun babe as a (nick)name.
proper noun
- A male given name or nickname Ruth was called “Babe” because of his youth (and baby face) when he signed with the Boston Red Sox in 1914 at age nineteen. He was also called “Bambino”—Italian for baby.
