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I have been looking into proverbs, having the word "honey" as their component and found some proverbs, the meanings of which I could not work out:
1. If a bee didn't have a sting, he couldn't keep his honey
2. He who would gather honey must bear the sting of the bees
3. It's the roving bee that gathers honey.
4. Old bees yield no honey.
5. The bee that makes the honey doesn't stand around the hive, and the man who makes the money has to worry, work, and strive
6. The bee works all summer and eats honey all winter
7. When the bee sucks, it makes honey; when the spider, poison.
8. While honey lies in every flower, it takes a bee to get the honey out
9. Every bee's honey is sweet.
I can only suppose that in [4], the meaning of the proverb is that "old people cannot work very hard". The second proverb may mean that nothing is gained easily, that there are obstacles on the way to success, that only hard work brings to success. In [6], the main idea conveyed may be the following: "he who works hard, enyoys the fruits of hard work". The seventh proverb [7] may mean that "in the same environment the good person may create good things, and the evil one - bad things". The sixth and seventh examples exist in Armenian, as well. I doubt what language they belong to - English or maybe another language. And I once read that the seventh proverb comes from biblical scripture (Available online at http://www.csun.edu/~ghagopian/Documents/OriginalArmenianProverbsandtheBiblicalScripture.pdf).
I wonder what precisely the mentioned proverbs mean, and whether or not all of them are English proverbs.
1. The "turn the other cheek" teaching has been deprecated by the growing number of Christian churches that believe every word of the bible except those they disagree with.
4. I think it's less a criticism of old people and more a criticism of worn out tools and obsolete techniques. "It's the poor workman who blames his tools" - because the craftsman acquires good tools and maintains them carefully.
5 & 6 are ways of saying, "Don't ask ME for money, ya lazy bum!"
Number 9. says you don't necessarily need to bring home the prettiest girl at the dance to be a real winner - and I'd argue that it's probably the best advice there. You find the greatest riches where nobody else has prospected.
There's a further discussion at: http://science.time.com/2013/08/08/behind-the-bees-knees-the-origins-of-nine-bee-idioms/slide/introduction/
Included is one I'd never heard: "To put the bee on"
"To put the bee on someone can mean to ask them for money, often with a piteous, woe-is-me tale. Webb Garrison, a late historian and dean at Emory University, traced the term to America’s frontier days. Poor churchgoers would organize “bees”—meetings where everyone pitched in—to pay their preachers; donation collectors would have to “put the bee on” those who were less willing contribute."
Thanks for the article about Armenian proverbs and the Bible. I did not expect this one:
He who parties, will have no lack of parties, (he who mourns, will always mourn)
Martha Barnette
Grant Barrett
Grant Barrett
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