Bee

subs. (colloquial).—1.  A ‘sweet’ writer, singer etc.

  1753.  Chambers’ Cyclopædia, Suppl., s.v. BEE. Xenophon is called the Attic BEE.

  2.  (colloquial).—A busy worker.

  1791–1824.  DISRAELI, Curiosities of Literature (1866), 319, 2. A complete collection of classical works, all the BEES of antiquity … may be hived in a single glass case.

  3.  (American).—A working party of neighbours and friends for the benefit of one of their number; as when a party of settlers combine to erect a log-house for a newcomer, or when farmers unite to gather one another’s harvests in succession: e.g., APPLE-BEE, RAISING-BEE, STONE-BEE, QUILTING-BEE, HUSKING-BEE, etc.; hence, a social gathering for some specific purpose, as SPELLING-BEE.

  1809.  IRVING, Knickerbocker History of New-York [Works. I, 238]. Now were instituted ‘QUILTING-BEES,’ and ‘HUSKING-BEES,’ and other rural assemblages.

  1830.  GALT, Lawrie Todd (1849), III. v. 98. I made a BEE; that is, I collected as many of the most expert and able-bodied of the settlers to assist at the raising.

  1857.  S. G. GOODRICH, Recollections of a Lifetime, I. 75. At Ridgefield we used to have ‘STONE-BEES,’ when all the men of a village or hamlet came together with their draft cattle, and united to clear some patch of earth which had been stigmatized by nature with an undue visitation of stones and rocks.

  1864.  YONGE, The Trial, II. 281. She is gone out with Cousin Deborah to an APPLE BEE.

  1876.  J. LUBBOCK, Elementary Education [The Contemporary Review, June, 91]. He may be invincible at a SPELLING BEE.

  1884.  E. INGERSOLL, Wheat Fields of the Columbia, in Harper’s Magazine, Sept., 510. 2. This execution, which in Idaho phrase was a ‘HANGING-BEE.’

  TO HAVE A BEE IN THE HEAD (BRAIN or BONNET), verb. phr. (old).—To have queer ideas; to be ‘half-cracked’; flighty, eccentric, crazy, with a screw loose &c.: cf. Fr. grille and MAGGOT. Hence BEE-BONNETTED = somewhat crazed; BEE-HEAD = a crazy-pate: hence BEE-HEADED.

  1512–3.  DOUGLAS, Æneis, VIII., Prol. 120. Quhat bern be thou in bed, with HEID FULL OF BEIS.

  c. 1533.  UDALL, Roister Doister [ARBER], 29. Who so hath suche BEES as your maister IN HYS HEAD.

  1571.  EDWARDS, Damon and Pithias [DODSLEY, Old Plays (REED), i. 180].

  1614.  JONSON, Bartholomew Fair, i. 4. If he meet but a carman in the street, and I find him not talk to keep him off on him, he will whistle him and all his tunes at overnight in his sleep! he has a HEAD FULL OF BEES.

  1657.  SAMUEL COLVIL, Whigs Supplication, or Scotch Hudibras (1710). Which comes from BRAINS WHICH HAVE A BEE.

  1724.  A. RAMSAY, The Tea-table Miscellany, II. 119. But thy wild BEES I canna please.

  1824.  SCOTT, St. Ronan’s Well, xvii. ‘Maybe ye think the puir lassie has A BEE IN HER BONNET; but ye ken yoursell if naebody but wise folk were to marry, the warld wad be ill peopled.’

  1843.  DE QUINCEY, Coleridge, etc. [Works XII. 91]. John Hunter, notwithstanding he had A BEE IN HIS BONNET was really a great man.

  1833.  BULWER-LYTTON, My Novel, 111. 307. It is not an uncommon crochet amongst benevolent men to maintain that wickedness is necessarily a sort of insanity, and that nobody would make a violent start out of a straight path unless stung to such disorder by a BEE IN HIS BONNET.

  1856.  ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING, Aurora Leigh, i. 1097. Whom men judge hardly as BEE-BONNETTED.

  1868.  BREWER, Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, 77, 2. You have A BEE IN YOUR BONNET or YOUR HEAD IS FULL OF BEES; [i.e.] full of devices, crotchets, fancies, inventions, and dreamy theories. The connection between bees and the soul was once generally maintained … the moon was called a bee by the priestesses of Ceres, and the word lunatic or moonstruck still means one with ‘BEES IN HIS HEAD.’

  1879.  JAMIESON, An Etymological Dictionary of the Scottish Language, s.v. Ye needna mind him, he’s a BEE-HEADED bodie.