English Explanatory Dictionary

babe

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. A baby or infant; a very young human or animal.
  2. An attractive person, especially a young woman.
  3. A darling (a term of endearment).
name
  1. A male given name or nickname

Pronunciation

/beɪb/ bāb en-us-babe.ogg

Word forms

babe babes

Etymology

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.

Synonyms

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

Derived words

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 pit babe scare-babe spokesbabe superbabe
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