humblebee

• humble-bee

From Middle English 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”).

humblebee (plural humblebees)

1. (obsolete) A bumblebee.
   • c. 1595–1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Loues Labour’s Lost”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, (please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals, and the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals):

     The fox, the ape, and the humble-bee,
     Were still at odds, 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, On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, […], London: John Murray, […], OCLC 1029641431:

     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.

• humble (“to hum”) (obsolete)