Results 1 to 8 of 8

Thread: Honey bee or honeybee

  1. #1
    Administrator gavin's Avatar
    Join Date
    Feb 2010
    Location
    Tayside
    Posts
    4,464
    Blog Entries
    41

    Default Honey bee or honeybee

    The pick of today's social media brings you .....

    https://jeffollerton.wordpress.com/2...or-bumble-bee/

    I recall making a conscious decision to change from using two words to one about a decade ago. I likely still use both

    G.

  2. #2
    Senior Member Mellifera Crofter's Avatar
    Join Date
    Sep 2010
    Location
    Aberdeenshire, on top of a wind-swept and exposed hill.
    Posts
    1,190

    Default

    Why did you change to 'honeybee'? We've chatted about the reason for 'honey bee' being two words on here before (entomology: it is a bee, as opposed to, say, 'butterfly' where a butterfly isn't a fly).

    I would have suggested that the shift towards 'honeybee' must be as a result of social media with its vast contribution of people who can't spell - but it started in 1921. So, I don't know ...

    Kitta

  3. #3
    Administrator gavin's Avatar
    Join Date
    Feb 2010
    Location
    Tayside
    Posts
    4,464
    Blog Entries
    41

    Default

    I think that some researchers I respected were using the single word and I had to make a decision for some documents I was writing.

    I see that this paper (I'm one of many authors) splits it in two.

    http://strathprints.strath.ac.uk/373...R_51_1_12L.pdf

    Maybe I'll switch back again before I'm done. Certainly SNHBS requires the two-word option for its title.

  4. #4

    Default

    Gavin...you're bored! lol Go and look at the bees flying.

  5. #5
    Administrator gavin's Avatar
    Join Date
    Feb 2010
    Location
    Tayside
    Posts
    4,464
    Blog Entries
    41

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Calluna4u View Post
    Gavin...you're bored! lol Go and look at the bees flying.
    Lol, yeah ... but I *was* watching them flying from the nucs at the front of the house earlier. Off to help out at the beginners class now.

  6. #6
    Senior Member Jon's Avatar
    Join Date
    Feb 2010
    Location
    Belfast, N. Ireland
    Posts
    5,122
    Blog Entries
    94

    Default

    Is it not one of those US/UK distinctions?
    You say potato and I say tomato or kidney beans or whatever...

  7. #7

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Jon View Post
    Is it not one of those US/UK distinctions?
    You say potato and I say tomato or kidney beans or whatever...

    I'm pretty sure it explained that way in one of the books I've got.
    It is for sure honey bees in the US.

  8. #8
    Senior Member Mellifera Crofter's Avatar
    Join Date
    Sep 2010
    Location
    Aberdeenshire, on top of a wind-swept and exposed hill.
    Posts
    1,190

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Jon View Post
    Is it not one of those US/UK distinctions?...
    I don't think so - not according to that Ngram viewer mentioned in Gavin's link. If I use it for 'English', the change-over from honey bee to honeybee happened in 1921; for American English in the '30s; and for British English in 1947, followed by three spikes in favour of honeybee, and then ended up about equal in 2000.

    BTW, I'm not bored, C4U.

    Kitta

Bookmarks

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •