abeja

Forms

abeja f (plural abejas)^[1] Old Spanish wrote abeia, abeja, aueja and aveja.^[2][3] Abella, abeilla and abeylla are found in Aragonese and Navarro-Aragonese texts of the 13th–15th centuries, and abeya is the Leonese form, still used in Asturian.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin apicula (“little bee”).^[4][5][6][1] The Latin word is a diminutive of apis (“bee”); already in Plautus it could be an affectionate variant of the plain noun, and in colloquial Latin it became a simple synonym of it.^[5][7] Gómez de Silva gives the contracted form Vulgar Latin *apicla.^[8]

The same Latin word is Portuguese abelha, Galician abella, Asturian abeya, Aragonese abella, Catalan abella, Occitan abelha and Italian pecchia.^[9][10][11] French abeille was taken from the Occitan form, after the French outcomes of the plain Latin noun had proved too short.^[10][12]

De Vaan finds no accepted etymology for the Latin noun; he considers conceivable a proposal that it was borrowed from Semitic, comparing an Egyptian word for the bee.^[13] Wiktionary mentions the traditional comparison with Ancient Greek ἐμπίς (empís, “stinging insect”) and German Imme (“bee”), and notes that the word looks like a European substrate word.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Breve diccionario dates the word to 951, and DEMel finds it that year in a charter of León in the form abelia.^[6][3] In a text written in Spanish, the Fazienda de Ultra Mar (c. 1200, in a 13th-century copy) tells how Samson found in the dead lion ensanne d'abeias e myel “a swarm of bees and honey”.^[14] The Fuero de Zorita, of 1218–1250, rules on a swarm that leaves one hive and enters another.^[14] The meaning was the insect from the start.^[14][2]

Semantic evolution

Corominas dates the word from the Fuero Juzgo of 1241.^[5] Covarrubias in 1611 offered a fanciful etymology, from Latin apes as if “without feet”.^[15] The Diccionario de Autoridades also gave the name to a southern constellation, and recorded the proverb abeja y oveja y piedra que trebeja on the profit that bees and sheep bring.^[16] The Academy's later editions have another proverb of the same kind, abeja y oveja y parte en la igreja desea a su hijo la vieja: hives, sheep and a church living are what an old woman wishes for her son.^[17]

The figurative sense of a hard-working, thrifty person is in the current dictionary.^[4][18] In Colombia the word is also used for a shrewd, resourceful person.^[19] The first record from the Americas is from Tierra Firme in 1515.^[20]

Timeline

• 951 – a charter of León has the form abelia.^[6][3]
• 964 – the Latin text of the Becerro Gótico de Cardeña writes apelias.^[2]
• c. 1200 – the Fazienda de Ultra Mar has abeias.^[14]
• 1241 – the Fuero Juzgo, Corominas's first record.^[5]
• 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's Lapidario compares a stone to the wax of young bees.^[21]
• 1515 – the first record from the Americas, in Tierra Firme.^[20]
• 1611 – Covarrubias derives it from Latin apes.^[15]
• 1726 – the Diccionario de Autoridades records the constellation and a proverb.^[16]
• 1884 – the Academy gives the etymology for the first time.^[22]

Meanings

Noun

1. bee: a hymenopteran insect about fifteen millimetres long, dark brown with reddish hair, that lives in colonies and makes wax (cera) and honey (miel).^[4][1]
2. A hard-working, thrifty person.^[4][18]
3. (Colombia) A shrewd person who copes well in any situation.^[19]

Word family

• abejaruco
• abejón
• abejorro
• abejero

Related words

• apícola
• apicultura
• Latin apis
• Portuguese abelha

Usage notes

The queen bee is abeja reina (formerly maestra or maesa), the worker abeja obrera;^[18] abeja albañila and abeja carpintera are other kinds of bee.^[4][18]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española (2021–), Tesoro de los diccionarios históricos de la lengua española (TDHLE): Diccionario histórico (1933–1936), its unpublished slips, Diccionario histórico (1960–1996), DHECan, DHECR, DHEVen, https://www.rae.es/tdhle, p. s.v. abeja
3. ^ a b c Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. abeja
4. ^ a b c d e Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. abeja
5. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 12
6. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. abeja
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México
9. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 576
10. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
11. ^ Segura Munguía, Santiago (2001), Nuevo diccionario etimológico latín-español y de las voces derivadas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. 49
12. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. abeja
13. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
14. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. abeja
15. ^ a b Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 43
16. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 1, 9
17. ^ Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 2
18. ^ a b c d Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. abeja
19. ^ a b Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. abeja
20. ^ a b Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, p. s.v. abeja
21. ^ Kasten, Lloyd A.; Nitti, John J.; Gago Jover, Francisco (2002–), Diccionario de la prosa castellana del Rey Alfonso X, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (electronic edition 2024), p. s.v. abeja
22. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 3