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what would a queen bee be called if queens never existed? (lemm.ee)

submitted 5 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

33 comments fedilink hide all child comments

like what if the first person to coin the phrase, for the one bee that lays around just producing offspring, lived in a world that had no monarchies? or, were radically opposed to the concept.

also what do you think we would name them today if we just found them?

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[–] [email protected] 48 points 5 months ago (3 children)

In Old English it's "beomodor", literally "bee mother"

[–] [email protected] 12 points 5 months ago

that's some good shit

[–] [email protected] 9 points 5 months ago

One does not simply walk into beomodor.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Does that mean Beowulf means bee wolf in old English?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Yes, or perhaps less literally "bee hunter", it was used as euphemism for a bear. There's some theories that saying the actual word for bear was taboo (some theories say that people believed saying it's name could attract one), so they used euphemisms like that, or "the brown one", bero, which is where the English word "bear" comes from.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago

Now that just makes me curious as hell about the original work for bear. Maybe something more similar to the Latin “ursa”?