bee

See also Bee, bée, and béé

English

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Wikipedia

Pronunciation

Etymology 1

A bee

From Middle English bee, from Old English bēo, from Proto-Germanic *bijō (compare Dutch bij, Upper German Beie, Swedish bi), from Proto-Indo-European *bʱi- (compare Old Irish bech (“bee”), Welsh bydaf (“beehive”), Latin fūcus (“drone”), Latvian bite (“bee”), Russian пчела (pčelá, “bee”)).

Noun

bee (bees or been (dialectal))

  1. A flying insect, of the superfamily Apoidea, known for their organised societies, for collecting pollen, and producing wax and honey.
    • 1499, John Skelton, The Bowge of Courte:
      His face was belymmed as byes had him stounge [...].
    • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, III.12:
      An angry Wasp th'one in a viall had, / Th'other in hers an hony-laden Bee.
    • 1603, John Florio, translating Michel de Montaigne, Essays, II.12:
      Can there be a more formall, and better ordered policie, divided into so severall charges and offices, more constantly entertained, and better maintained, than that of Bees?
    • 2012, ‘Subtle poison’, The Economist, 31 Mar 2012:
      Bees pollinate many of the world’s crops—a service estimated to be worth $15 billion a year in America alone.
Derived terms
terms derived from bee (noun)
Synonyms
Translations
insect
See also

Etymology 2

Possibly from dialectal English 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”),[1][2] from Old English bēn (“prayer, request, petition, favour, compulsory service”) from Proto-Germanic *bōniz (“prayer, request, supplication”), from Proto-Indo-European *bhā- (“to say, speak”). Cognate with Danish bøn (“prayer”), Dutch ban (“curse”), German Bann (“ban”). More at ban.

Noun

bee (plural bees)

  1. A contest, especially for spelling; see spelling bee.
    geography bee
  2. A gathering for a specific purpose, e.g. a sewing bee or a quilting bee.
    • 2011, Tim Blanning, "The reinvention of the night", Times Literary Supplement, 21 Sep 2011:
      Particularly resistant, for example, in many parts of northern Europe was the “spinning bee”, a nocturnal gathering of women to exchange gossip, stories, refreshment and – crucially – light and heat, as they spun wool or flax, knitted or sewed.
Translations
contest
gathering
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.
Translations to be checked

Etymology 3

(Northern development of) Old English bēah.

Noun

bee (plural bees)

  1. (obsolete) A ring or torque; a bracelet.
    • 1485, Sir Thomas Malory, Le Morte Darthur, Book VII:
      And Kynge Arthure gaff hir a ryche bye of golde; and so she departed.
    • 1658, Sir Thomas Browne, Urne-Burial, Penguin 2005, p. 16:
      ...restoring unto the world much gold richly adorning his Sword, two hundred Rubies, many hundred Imperial Coynes, three hundred golden Bees, the bones and horseshoe of his horse enterred with him...

Etymology 4

Variant spellings.

Verb

bee

  1. Archaic spelling of be.
    • 1604 Reverend Cawdrey Table Aleph
      held that a ‘Nicholaitan is an heretike, like Nicholas, who held that wiues should bee common to all alike.’
  2. (obsolete) Past participle of be; been
    (Can we find and add a quotation of Spenser to this entry?)

Etymology 5

Noun

bee (plural bees)

  1. The name of the Latin script letter B/b.
See also
Translations
name of the letter B, b

References

  1. ^ http://education.yahoo.com/reference/dictionary/entry/bee
  2. ^ http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bee%5B3%5D
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Finnish

Pronunciation

Noun

bee

  1. The name of the Latin script letter B/b.

Declension

Declension of bee (type maa)
singular plural
nominative bee beet
genitive been beiden
beitten
partitive beetä beitä
accusative bee
been		 beet
inessive beessä beissä
elative beestä beistä
illative beehen beihin
adessive beellä beillä
ablative beeltä beiltä
allative beelle beille
essive beenä beinä
translative beeksi beiksi
instructive – bein
abessive beettä beittä
comitative – beineen
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Latin

Interjection

bee!

  1. baa (sound of a sheep)
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Mandinka

Pronunciation

Noun

bee

  1. (anatomy) vagina
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Manx

Noun

bee m

  1. food
  2. provisions
  3. nourishment
  4. diet

Verb

bee

  1. to be

Mutation

Manx mutation
Radical Lenition Eclipsis
bee vee mee
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every
possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.
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Navajo

Pronunciation

  • Audio (NV)
    		(file)

Postposition

bee

  1. with, by means of, by means of it

Inflection

Navajo postpositions
singular duoplural
1st person shee nihee
2nd person nee nihee
3rd person bee
4th person (3o) yee
4th person (3a) hee
4th person (3i) ʼee —
reflexive ádee —
reciprocal — ahee
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Old Irish

Verb

bee

  1. second-person singular present subjunctive absolute of at·tá
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Tetum

bee

Etymology

From Proto-Central Malayo-Polynesian *waiʀ, from Proto-Central-Eastern Malayo-Polynesian *waiʀ, from Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *wahiʀ.

Alternative forms

Noun

bee

  1. water (clear liquid H₂O)
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Last modified on 20 May 2013, at 15:37