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humblebee

noun

Etymology

From Middle English humbul-be, humbulbe, hombul-be, from *humbul (“bumblebee”) + be (“bee”). See also West Frisian hommel (“bumblebee”), Dutch hommel (“bumblebee”), German Low German Hummel (“bumblebee”), German Hummel (“bumblebee”), Swedish humla (“bumblebee”), Norwegian humle (“bumblebee”); also cognate with Dutch hommelbij (“bumblebee”), Danish humlebi (“bumblebee”). Compare also English humble (“to hum”).

  1. inherited from humbul-be

Definitions

  1. A bumblebee.

    • The Fox, the Ape, and the Humble-Bee, Were ſtill at oddes being but three.
    • 1800's, Ralph Waldo Emerson, The Humblebee Burly, dozing humblebee, Where thou art is clime for me.
    • Hence I have very little doubt, that if the whole genus of humble-bees became extinct or very rare in England, the heartsease and red clover would become very rare, or wholly disappear.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for humblebee. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

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