Humble-beeとは 意味・読み方・使い方

語源

From 中期英語 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”).

名詞

humblebee (plural humblebees)

1. (archaic) A bumblebee.
   • c. 1595–1596 (date written), W. Shakespere [i.e., William Shakespeare], A Pleasant Conceited Comedie Called, Loues Labors Lost. […] (First Quarto), London: […] W[illiam] W[hite] for Cut[h]bert Burby, published 1598, →OCLC, [Act III, scene i], signature [C4], verso:

     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.

   • 1859 November 24, Charles Darwin, “Struggle for Existence”, in On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, […], London: John Murray, […], →OCLC, pages 73–74:

     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.

参照

• “humblebee”, in Collins English Dictionary, 2011–present.
• “humblebee”, in Merriam-Webster.com Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.