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This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Spelman chapter.

Bae.  Is it a word?  Is it an acronym?  Lately, you can hear “bae” loosely used among our generation, but who knows what it really means.  According to the popular source Urban Dictionary, “bae” can mean “before anyone else”, “significant other”, or “a nickname for a friend or lover”.  Obviously those definitions are contradictory because how can it mean a significant other, but also mean a nickname for a friend?  Shouldn’t it be one or the other?  I thought “bae” was just a shorter version of babe, but clearly I’ve been wrong according to Urban Dictionary and those who have used the term around me in my social groups. 

The most fascinating aspects to the term “bae” are the varying definitions given by both females and males in our dating culture.  When asked around in the AUC some say that “a ‘bae’ is someone they like, but not fully committed to—more of a in the moment nickname,” or “someone right below girlfriend/boyfriend status, but above a ‘side-chick/side-guy.  But then you get definitions like “‘bae’ is basically a main girl/guy, and at that point, cut off all others” or “a term of endearment that is interchangeable with ‘boo’, where it does not have to be an official boyfriend/girlfriend, but it can be”.

When a term like “bae” is excessively used without there being a concrete definition, it complicates our dating culture. “Bae” can be used in an exclusive relationship, pinpointing a celebrity crush, or someone a person is frolicking with, which therefore diminishes the substance the term once had.  It seems as if “bae” is either just a cute nickname, or an undefined relationship status. All in all, if you decide to have a bae or bae-less it is up to you.

 

 

Danyelle Carter has always been excited about building beneficial relationships, sharing stories and managing her best self. She is an aspiring publicist majoring in Comparative Women's Studies at her dream school, the illustrious Spelman College in Atlanta, GA. She chose to continue her education at Spelman after graduating summa cum laude from Miami Dade College with a joint associate degree in Mass Communications and Journalism. Currently a junior at Spelman, Danyelle hopes to bring contemporary perspectives to commercial appeal by pursuing entrepreneurship of owning her own firm. If you ask her what her aspirations are, her eyes would light up, her smile would widen and she would squeal: "to be the Communicator-in-Chief of my own PR/Social Interaction agency!"