the.com/babe

means A casual term of endearment for a loved one — or, informally, an attractive person — whose friendliness or frost depends entirely on delivery.

from Simply baby clipped short. Baby itself likely echoes the babbling sounds infants make — "ba-ba" being an easy syllable for new mouths — a pattern seen across many languages for words meaning infant. "Babe" existed as a word for infant for centuries before it drifted, especially in the 20th century, into slang for a sweetheart or a good-looking stranger, riding the same sense of helpless appeal the original word carried.