Romantic partner. "Spending the weekend with bae." Shorter and more casual than "boyfriend/girlfriend." A minor-stakes endearment used liberally on social media.
"Bae" is a casual endearment with no particular theological problem. The mild note: Scripture takes romantic and covenantal love with utmost seriousness. Song of Songs uses "my beloved" (dodi), a weighty term that means something. When serious relationships get very casual vocabulary, the vocabulary can shape the seriousness. Using "bae" for someone you are casually dating is one thing; using it as the primary name for your spouse may hide how seriously you are to take that covenant. Casual vocabulary is fine; do not let it shrink the covenant it refers to.
Casual shorthand for a romantic partner. The vocabulary is light; the covenant should not be.
Every generation invents love-vocabulary. The biblical corrective is not against the words but against the shrinking of love itself. Modern dating often treats romantic partnership as provisional — something that can be renamed, revoked, ghosted, swiped away. When you call someone "bae," notice whether the lightness is just affection or whether it signals a casualness that the relationship itself has absorbed. Cultivate heavy love with light names; do not cultivate light love.
Song of Songs 6:3 — "I am my beloved's and my beloved is mine."
Ephesians 5:25 — "Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her."
Proverbs 5:18-19 — "Let your fountain be blessed, and rejoice in the wife of your youth... be intoxicated always in her love."
Call her bae if you like. Love her like Christ loves the Church. The vocabulary is light; the covenant is heavy.
“Bae and I are going to the farmers market.”
“I am my beloved's and my beloved is mine.”