Bee (gathering)

A bee, as used in quilting bee, working bee or spelling bee, is an expression used together with another word to describe a gathering of peers to accomplish a task or to hold a competition. Especially in the past, the tasks were often major jobs, such as clearing a field of timber or raising a barn, that would be difficult to carry out alone. It was often both a social and utilitarian event. Jobs like corn husking or sewing, could be done as a group to allow socialization during an otherwise tedious chore. Such bees often included refreshments and entertainment provided by the group.

History

This use of the word bee is common in literature describing colonial North America. The earliest known printed example of the term was the use of spinning bee in 1769, but most printed occurrences of the word didn’t occur until the 19th century. Some types of bees (with the date that they first appeared in print) include:

spinning bee (1769)

husking bee (or cornhusking) (1816)

apple bee (1827)

logging bee (1836)

spelling bee (1825)

Spinning bees were popular in colonial America as a way to demonstrate opposition to purchasing heavily taxed British goods.

Uses in literature include:

There was a bee to-day for making a road up to the church. — Anne Langton

The cellar … was dug by a bee in a single day. — S. G. Goodrich

When one of the pioneers had chopped down timber and got it in shape, he would make a logging bee, get two or three gallons of New England Rum, and the next day the logs were in great heaps. ... after a while there was a carding and jutting mill started where people got their wool made into rolls, when the women spun and wove it. Sometimes the women would have spinning bees. They would put rolls among their neighbors and on a certain day they would all bring in their yarn and at night the boys would come with their fiddles for a dance. ... He never took a salary, had a farm of 80 acres [324,000 m²] and the church helped him get his wood (cut and drawn by a bee), and also his hay. — James Slocum

Derivation

Because the word describes people working together in a social group, a common false etymology is that the term derives from the insect of the same name and similar social behavior. According to etymological research recorded in dictionaries, the word in fact probably comes from dialectal been or bean (meaning "help given by neighbors"), which came from Middle English bene (meaning "prayer", "boon" and "extra service by a tenant to his lord")

See also

Barn raising

Dugnad

Talkoot

References

Scripps National Spelling Bee

"Old Chelmsford" Garrison House Spinning Bee

Category:Social groups Category:Competitions Category:Mutualism