babe

A baby or infant; a very young human or animal. [from 14th c.]

Noun

  1. A baby or infant; a very young human or animal. [from 14th c.]
    • These events came to pass when he was but a babe.
    • Though he possess sweet babes and loving wife, A home of peace by loyal friendships cheered, And love them more than death or happy life, - 1874, James Thomson, The City of Dreadful Night:
  2. An attractive person, especially a young woman. [from 20th c.]
    • She's a real babe!
    • During the 1980s, its vivid streetlife became a symbol of the “consumer socialism” that distinguished Hungary from other Eastern Bloc states, but Budapesters today are rather less enamoured of Váci: dressed-to-kill...
  3. A darling (a term of endearment).
    • Hey, babe, how's about you and me getting together?
    • But, Babe, you don't have to meet 'em if you don't want to. - 1916 March 11, Charles E. Van Loan, “His Folks”, in Saturday Evening Post:
    • But they don't know that your sweet loving, babe Was here when all my friends were gone - 1968 December 8, Henry Cosby, Sylvia Moy, Stevie Wonder, “I’d Be a Fool Right Now”, in For Once in My Life, performed by Stevie...

Origin

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.

Forms

babes

Synonyms

baby child infant hottie doll fox See: Thesaurus:beautiful woman looker beautiful person darling dear love sweetheart

Derived

babealicious babehood babe-in-a-cradle babe in arms babe in the wood babe in the woods babeish babelet babelike babe magnet babeship babish bikini babe Blair's babes booth babe Busby Babe Cumberbabe cyberbabe grandbabe hog-babe innocent as a newborn babe innocent as the babe unborn out of the mouths of babes out of the mouths of babes and sucklings