Do we have to put up with Wilton? Have him post his sophomoric stuff on his own
website.

j p maher
etymologist

--- On Fri, 7/3/09, Dave Wilton <dave@...> wrote:

From: Dave Wilton <dave@...>
Subject: RE: [DSNA] Bees Wax
To: DSNA@yahoogroups.com
Date: Friday, July 3, 2009, 11:41 AM

















It's because you're dealing with two distinct usages.



The literal "bee's wax," the substance secreted by hymenoptera, does indeed

date to Elizabethan times.



But the slang "beeswax," meaning business, is an intentional and jocular

malapropism that only dates to the 1930s and is American in origin. This

slang sense has nothing to do with the literal wax, except insofar as the

pronunciation can be deliberately mangled.



-----Original Message-----

From: DSNA@yahoogroups. com [mailto:DSNA@yahoogroups. com] On Behalf Of Scott

Nelson

Sent: Friday, July 03, 2009 9:19 AM

To: DSNA@yahoogroups. com

Cc: bolstar1@yahoo. com

Subject: [DSNA] Bees Wax



I have a question for anyone who might know why the OED, Random House,

Merriam (dictionary & "Coined by Shakespeare" Merriam) don't list

Shakespeare as having coined the word/phrase "bees-wax" or "mind your own

bees wax." I know that everyone in Elizabethan times knew where wax for

officially sealing various correspondences came from, but coinage being what

is is (the first recorded use of a term/expression) it's puzzling that the

first listing in OED (online) lists the first use in 1676 -- MOXON Print

lett. 12 "You may rub your stone over with little Bees Wax."; Merriam lists

1664, Random lists 1670).

     Yet II Henry VI 4.2.81-84 (1590-91) reads, "Some say the bee stings,

but I say, 'tis the bee's wax: for I did but seal once to a thing, and I was

never mine own man since." I must be not be able to see the Amazon jungle

for the trees.



Scott N.



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