![]() The Bumblebee Conservation Trust’s website records sightings on the south coast in the mid-1800s, whilst the equally highly-reputable NBN Atlas, which holds more than 198 million UK species records, has only two mentions for the apple bumble bee. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.Given the popularity of apples in Britain you could be forgiven for expecting the apple bumble bee ( Bombus pomorum) to be one of the species found here. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at for further information. And then, of course, Noah Webster's spelling book came out in 1783, so we know that these competitions existed but they didn't call them spelling bees until 1850.īLOCK: Peter Sokolowski, editor at large for Merriam-Webster, explaining the spelling bee. Ben Franklin, in 1750, so long before the Declaration of Independence, he thought that challenging one another was a great way for students to learn and to learn how to spell.īenjamin Franklin thought spelling was very important. We see a depiction of one student quizzing another and then that moves into the New World. SOKOLOWSKI: Spelling bee, it's interesting because there's so many accounts of this kind of competition that go back really to the Renaissance, to Shakespeare's time. And you can imagine, at harvest time, you would need extra hands and you'd only need them for a day or two, so neighbors would help neighbors.īLOCK: And the spelling bee, in particular, what's the first use of a spelling bee? and then reciprocally will help each other. SOKOLOWSKI: Apple bee, I assume, is farmers helping their neighbors pick apples. Husking bee, so now moving it to the farm, 1816. SOKOLOWSKI: Yes, we see it going back to spinning bee. You know, the notion of a community activity really also goes back to the tradition of the spelling bee, which was to say that of village entertainment, so that you had in New England in the period right around the Revolutionary War, these village gatherings that would be in the evening and involve children but also adults spelling.Īnd they used Noah Webster's spelling book and that tradition pushed west, moved west with America.īLOCK: What was the first use of bee in the sense of communal gathering or communal activity? SOKOLOWSKI: And what's interesting about this is it's still not quite a fight. ![]() But, you know, Mark Twain called it a spelling fight in "Tom Sawyer." ![]() They make, by the way, lifelong friendships. They're nice to each other, but they're all about winning. ![]() And so you can see how this could connect to community activity.īLOCK: Interesting that that whole notion of community activity or cooperation is completely lost from the spelling bee, right, which is all about competition and you're not helping each other out. If you think of the word boon, that means sort of a blessing or a good thing. And, you know, it's the root of our word boon. SOKOLOWSKI: Bane meaning help given by neighbors. We're talking about old English village life.īLOCK: So go back to that. In other words, we're not talking about the debate societies of Oxford and Cambridge. And so there's sort of a tradition that's agrarian and also sort of village life. Think of husking bee, for example, or, as you said, quilting bee. Many people think that it actually doesn't come from the insect, but in fact comes from an old English word, bane, which would mean help given by neighbors. SOKOLOWSKI: The word bee in this particular use is a bit of a puzzle. Peter, thanks for coming in.īLOCK: We think of a quilting bee, a spelling bee. So why is it called a spelling bee anyway? Here to unlock the etymology behind the bee is lexicographer Peter Sokolowski, editor at large for Merriam-Webster.
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