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bee mother

noun

Etymology

From bee + mother, possibly as a calque of Old English bēomōdor (“queen bee”).

  1. derived from *muþraz✻ — “sediment”
  2. inherited from *méh₂tēr✻
  3. inherited from *mōdēr✻
  4. inherited from *mōder✻
  5. inherited from mōdor
  6. inherited from moder
  7. compounded as bee mother — “bee + mother”

Definitions

  1. A queen bee (perceived as the mother of the hive)

    • […] but how much more so when it must be acknowledged, that it is all owing to one female, and that this queen-bee, or bee-mother, alone, has given origin to such an immense progeny?
    • The youngest of the sisters—the one at the bottom—is only a tiny egg, which the bee-mother has laid in the cell.
    • The bee family is divided into three sections, the "queens," or bee-mothers, the drones, or male bees, and the workers. The duty of the "queen," or bee-mother, is to keep the hive well supplied with workers.

The neighborhood

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sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA