'bafta' originates from English, specifically as the acronym 'BAFTA' formed from the initial letters of 'British Academy of Film and Television Arts'.

'BAFTA' was coined as an initialism for 'British Academy of Film and Television Arts' (the modern name adopted after a 1976 merger of the British Film Academy and the Guild of Television Producers and Directors); the lowercase form 'bafta' is used informally to refer to either the organization or its awards.

Initially it referred primarily to the organization ('British Academy of Film and Television Arts'); over time it also came to mean the awards presented by that organization ('a BAFTA award' / 'a bafta').