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”).

• IPA^(key): /beɪb/, enPR: bāb

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪb

babe (plural babes)

1. (literary or poetic) A baby or infant; a very young human or animal. [from 14th c.]

   These events came to pass when he was but a babe.

   • 1874, James Thomson, The City of Dreadful Night:

     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,

2. (slang) An attractive person, especially a young woman. [from 20th c.]

   She's a real babe!

   • 2002, Charles Hebbert, Dan Richardson, The Rough Guide to Budapest, 2nd edition, London: Rough Guides, →ISBN, page 73:

     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 babes and their sugar daddies would rather pose in malls, and teenagers can find McDonald's anywhere, leaving Váci utterly dependent on tourists for its livelihood and bustle.

3. (endearing) Darling (term of endearment).

   Hey, babe, how's about you and me getting together?

   • 1916 March 11, Charles E. Van Loan, “His Folks”, in Saturday Evening Post‎^[1]:

     But, Babe, you don't have to meet 'em if you don't want to.

   • 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 Wonder, Tamla Records:

     But they don't know that your sweet loving, babe
     Was here when all my friends were gone

• (infant): baby, child, infant
• (attractive person): looker; See Thesaurus:beautiful person
  • (woman): hottie, doll, fox; See: Thesaurus:beautiful woman
• (darling): darling, dear, love, sweetheart

• abbe, abbé

babe

1. inflection of babar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative

• bab, babbe
• (early) baban

From Old English *baba.

• IPA^(key): /ˈbaːb(ə)/, /ˈbab(ə)/

babe (plural babes)

1. baby, infant

• baby

• English: babe, bab
• → Irish: báb
• → Welsh: baban

• “bābe, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

• Rhymes: (Brazil) -abi, (Portugal) -abɨ
• Hyphenation: ba‧be

babe

1. inflection of babar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative

• IPA^(key): [ˈba.be]

babe f pl

1. plural of babă

babe (Cyrillic spelling бабе)

1. inflection of baba:
   1. genitive singular
   2. nominative/accusative/vocative plural

• IPA^(key): /babe/, [ˈbabe]
• Rhymes: -abe
• Hyphenation: ba‧be

babe

1. dative/locative singular of baba

From Proto-Bantu *bààbá.

babé class 1a (plural bóbabé class 2a)

1. my father

This noun needs an inflection-table template.