Word for Wednesday: Bee

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Some new residents have appeared in the garden. Two nests of bumblebees.

'Bee' originates from the Old English 'boe' which descended from Old Norse 'by', Old High German 'bia' and the Middle Dutch 'bie'.

The 'bee' in 'spelling bee' appears to have nothing to do with the creatures other than perhaps their communal effort ( 'busy bee' has been a metaphor for 'busy worker' since the 1500s and the ones in the garden do not disappoint).

There is a theory that this 'bee' comes from the Middle English word 'bene' meaning 'a prayer' or 'favour' and also in some English dialects 'voluntary help given by a community'. So a community might get together for say, a 'harvest bee' or a 'sewing bee' to help get a task done. In this context then, a community getting together to improve spelling!

By the way, did you know that we can thank Beatrix Potter for cementing the name change from Humblebee to Bumblebee in 1910 with her character Babbitty Bumble in The Tale of Mrs Tittlemouse?


21 May 2014
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One of the students has put in a huge amount of effort in completing Spellzone at least 3 times a week since his arrival with us in January. Looking at his scores after the latest GL testing, his standardised score has risen from 99 to 131. This is a truly phenomenal result. I just wanted to share the best result I have ever seen.

Terrie Penrose-Toms, Casterton College

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