Before anyone else

BAE is a very popular acronym typically used in the teenage speech community. It most commonly stands for before anyone else, or can also be used to replace simple words such as "babe" or "baby" when referring to ones significant other.This replacement of "babe" accounts for the odd ae juxtaposition. This is a classic example of slang lovers and users favoriting the dropped letter method. Other examples include, "coo" for "cool" or "cray" for "crazy."It also means poop in the Danish language.

What is a speech community and where does "bae" fit?

A speech community is a regionally or socially defined social group of which the members enclosed in it share a language variety in which it may be spoken or signed. People generally belong to several speech communities, but most intriguing is that teenage speech communities isolate itself in terms of identity and language from the surrounding speech communities. John Gumperez, a linguistic anthropology researcher accurately states, “[t]he shift of emphasis from historical to synchronic problems during the last three decades has brought about some fundamental changes in our theories of language, resulting in the creation of a body of entirely new analytical techniques.” This accurately depicts the teenage social community in which the acronym “bae” is most commonly found (Gumperez, 69).