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35,981 English word records · 45,491 etymology sections in this online subset
PARTIAL ENGLISH COVERAGE · FULL CORPUS REMAINS LOCAL6 source sections across 1 headword matching “Bee”. These are separate from the reviewed results below.
beeEnglish (en) · Etymology 1Source text
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *bʰey-der. Proto-Germanic *bijǭ Proto-West Germanic *bijā Old English bēo Middle English be 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 and Swedish bi (“bee”), Faroese býfluga (“bee”), Icelandic bý, býfluga (“bee”), Norwegian Bokmål and Norwegian Nynorsk bie (“bee”); also Irish beach, meach (“bee”), Scottish Gaelic beach (“bee; beehive; wasp”), Latin fūcus (“bee”), Latvian bite (“bee”), Lithuanian bitė (“bee”), Belarusian пчала́ (pčalá, “bee”), Bulgarian, Macedonian, and Russian пчела́ (pčelá, “bee”), Czech včála, včela (“bee”), Polish pszczoła (“bee”), Serbo-Croatian пчѐла, bčela, pčèla (“bee”), Slovak včela (“bee”), Slovene čebela (“bee”), Ukrainian бджола́ (bdžolá, “bee”), Ossetian биндзӕ (binʒæ), бындз (bynʒ, “fly”), Pashto وينه (waynë́, wenë́, wuynë́, “termite; white ant”).
Original Wiktionary entry and references ↗beeEnglish (en) · Etymology 2Source text
Possibly from dialectal bene, been, bean (“help given by neighbours”), from Middle English been, bene (“neighbourly help, prayer, petition, request, extra service given by a tenant to his lord”), from Old English bēn (“prayer, request, petition, favour, compulsory service”), from Proto-West Germanic *bōni, from Proto-Germanic *bōniz (“prayer, request, supplication”). Thus a variant of obsolete ben (“prayer; petition”) and doublet of boon. Cognate with Danish bøn (“prayer”), Dutch ban (“curse”), German Bann (“ban”). More at ban.
Original Wiktionary entry and references ↗beeEnglish (en) · Etymology 3Source text
From Middle English bie, from Old English bēah, bēag, from Proto-West Germanic *baug, from Proto-Germanic *baugaz. Doublet of beag, a learned borrowing; and of bagel.
Original Wiktionary entry and references ↗beeEnglish (en) · Etymology 4Source text
Variant spellings.
Original Wiktionary entry and references ↗beeEnglish (en) · Etymology 5Source text
From Middle English [Term?], from Old English be, from Latin be (the name of the letter B).
Original Wiktionary entry and references ↗beeEnglish (en) · Etymology 6Source text
Probably from Old English bēah (“ring”). Compare bow.
Original Wiktionary entry and references ↗INDEPENDENT SOURCE LIBRARY
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Mayhew–Skeat (1888)
1888; pinned HTML transcription updated October 28, 2024The query “bee” cannot be resolved without D1. No static search results are fabricated.
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