Love it or loathe it, perhaps one of the most interesting things about bae is the lively discussion which has ensued about where precisely it sprang from. One, perhaps more plausible, theory is that bae is an abbreviated form of the words baby or babe (as terms of endearment). This seems to be backed up by evidence suggesting it’s been used in rap songs since 2005, and is therefore probably of African American origin. Another idea, which appears to have been circulating the internet for the last three years or so, is that bae is in fact an acronym based on the expression before anyone else. There’s actually no convincing explanation for this theory and it seems to exist purely by virtue of blind acceptance and rapid promulgation on the part of web users. US linguist Neal Whitman has cited various reasons against the acronym theory, including evidence for non-romantic usage, e.g. bae bro/sis (‘baby brother/sister’) and an alternative spelling bay. He does however concede that, because the before anyone else idea is so widely accepted among users of the term, it should perhaps be acknowledged as a contemporary ‘meaning’ of bae.