Have you seen bees yet? There are small spring flowers in bloom so they are about. But mostly we know spring by the sound of bees in the air - that buzzing in the background. That's the sign the dandelions are in full bloom.
How did the sound of bees come to mean excitement, hype, cool gossip, thrill, joy, exhilaration, and tantalizing?
The Merriam dictionary says it means "pleasant sense of intoxication."
And how early has it been recorded? "Buzzing" is from the late 14th century, and "buzz" was noted in the late 15th century.
"a busy rumour" [Rowe], 1620s (earlier "a fancy," c. 1600), figurative use from buzz (v.). Literal sense of "a humming sound" is from 1640s. A "buzz" was the characteristic sound of an airplane in early 20c.; hence verbal sense "to fly swiftly," by 1928; by 1940 especially in military use, "to fly low over a surface as a warning signal" (for example that target practice is about to begin).
The meaning "pleasant sense of intoxication" was first recorded 1935. The children's game of counting off with 7 or multiples of it replaced by buzz is attested from 1864 and is mentioned in "Little Women" (1868). To give (someone) a buzz (by 1922) is from the buzz that announced a call on old telephone systems (1913). Buzz bomb "V1 rocket" is from 1944.
And how many tones and sounds of buzzing are there in nature? Cicadas hit the top as the source of buzzing sounds. I just found a youtube video with a buzzing insect and turned up the sound and now Millie is poking around the desk trying to find it. She knows buzzing. And I listed to a bee buzzing and Millie is looking outside to find that one.
I realize how little descriptive language we regular people use for buzzing sounds. You can go HERE to "see" the sounds of bees buzzing. But hear the sounds? That takes $9.00 to download.
I found this collage of bees in Lavender - now there's a visit I look forward to this summer - to get to visit the Lavender farms again.
