beehive

Etymology

It is formed from English bee + hive in Middle English.^{[2][3][4][5][6]} Some early forms were made instead with been, a plural of the first element.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

An artificial structure housing a colony of bees: about 1330, in the Auchinleck manuscript of Richard Coer de Lyon.^[2] Etymonline dates it to the early 14th century.^[3]

Semantic evolution

From 1579 it was applied to a place or thing likened to a hive, at first an organised, hierarchical society or institution and later a busy place.^[2] Etymonline dates the busy place to the 1610s,^[3] and the Shorter Oxford to the early 17th century.^[5] Literal use widened to the colony itself (1643) and to the nest of wild bees (1758).^[2] It named a woman's hat with a domed crown from 1817,^[2] and the hairstyle from 1960, in Modern Beauty Shop,^[2][3] a style said to have been popular from 1958.^[3] The star cluster in Cancer is the Beehive from 1833, in Herschel,^[2] though Etymonline dates that name to 1840.^[3] In slang the word meant the vagina from 1700,^[7] and in rhyming slang the number five, in print from 1969, with Partridge dating it to about 1920.^[7] The verb, to gather like bees in a hive, appears in 1883; an 1864 pun on behave came earlier.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 1330 – a structure housing a colony of bees.^[2]
• 1579 – figuratively, an organised society; later, a busy place.^[2]
• 1643 – a colony or swarm of bees.^[2]
• 1700 – slang, the vagina.^[7]
• 1758 – the nest of wild bees.^[2]
• 1817 – a woman's domed hat.^[2]
• 1833 – the star cluster in Cancer.^[2] Etymonline dates it to 1840.^[3]
• 1883 – verb, to cluster like bees.^[2]
• 1960 – a high domed hairstyle.^[2][3]
• 1969 – rhyming slang, the number five.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. A structure in which honeybees are kept: He checked each beehive before winter.^[4][8][2]
2. A colony of bees living in such a structure, or the nest of wild bees.^[2]
3. A place full of busy activity.^[8][4][2]
4. A woman's hairstyle with the hair piled in a high rounded shape on top of the head.^[8][4][2]
5. A rounded, conical or domed shape, like that of a traditional straw hive.^[4][5]
6. A woman's domed hat with a narrow brim or none.^[2]
7. (astronomy) With the: an open star cluster in Cancer, Praesepe.^[2][5]
8. (slang) The number five, in rhyming slang.^[7]

Verb

1. To gather or cluster together like bees in a hive.^[2]

Word family

• beehive tomb

Related words

• bee
• hive

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
7. ^ a b c d e Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
8. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt