bee

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   A flying insect that collects pollen from flowers and, in some species, makes honey.

   A bee landed on the flower and gathered pollen.

2. 2
   noun

   A contest, especially a spelling competition.

   She won the school spelling bee last year.

Appears in

Simplified etymology

Bee is an Old English word with corresponding forms in almost all the languages closely related to English. Beeline, recorded from the mid-19th century, arose from the former belief that bees return to their hive in a straight line. Bee in the sense “a meeting for communal work or amusement,” as in spelling bee, was suggested by the insect’s social nature and is first recorded in the United States in the 1760s.

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *bʰey-der. Proto-Germanic *bijǭ Proto-West Germanic *bijā Old English bēo Middle English bee English bee From Middle English be, bee, beo, bey, from Old English bēo, bīo (“bee”), from Proto-West Germanic *bijā, from Proto-Germanic *bijǭ (“bee”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰey- (“bee”). Cognates Cognate with Yola been (“bees”), North Frisian bi (“bee”), West Frisian bij (“bee”), Dutch bij, by (“bee”), German Biene (“bee”), Limburgish Bé, bie (“bee”), Luxembourgish Bei (“bee”), Vilamovian byn (“bee”), West Flemish bieë (“bee”), Yiddish בין (bin, “bee”), Danish…

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