So, no one takes me seriously, and claims to have a grasp of etymology? My
search for the derivation of a simple phrase, "bees wax" is not a joke. 
 
Scott N.

--- On Fri, 7/3/09, Stefan Dollinger <dstefan@...> wrote:


From: Stefan Dollinger <dstefan@...>
Subject: Re: [DSNA] Bees Wax
To: DSNA@yahoogroups.com
Date: Friday, July 3, 2009, 3:49 PM








Maybe I'm missing some of the context here, but if this is the new tone
on this discussion group, I'd be happy to leave it right away.
Best wishes, and hoping that this was just an accident,
Stefan

Stefan Dollinger, Ph.D.
Asst. Prof. of English Language
Canadian English Lab, Director
University of British Columbia
Department of English
Ph: (604) 822-4017
http://faculty. arts.ubc. ca/sdollinger/

J P Maher wrote:
>
>
> 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@wilton. net
> <mailto:dave% 40wilton. net>> wrote:
>
> From: Dave Wilton <dave@wilton. net <mailto:dave% 40wilton. net>>
> Subject: RE: [DSNA] Bees Wax
> To: DSNA@yahoogroups. com <mailto:DSNA% 40yahoogroups. 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.
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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