Rereading The Origin of Species I was struck by Darwin’s Chapter 7 discussion of the humble-bee and the hive-bee. I only know bumblebees, but it turns out that humblebees are bumblebees by a different name. According to the Random House Unabridged Dictionary 2006, humblebees are named for their hum, not their humility.
hum·ble·bee 
[huhm-buhl-bee] –noun Chiefly British.
| bumblebee. |
[Origin: 1400–50; late ME humbul-be; akin to D hommel drone, G Hummelbiene kind of wild-bee, MLG homelbe; prob. akin to hum]
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Humble, umble and bumble are three words that look as though they’d be related, but they have three different origins.
hum·ble [huhm-buhl] –adjective
| 1. | not proud or arrogant; modest: to be humble although successful. |
| 2. | having a feeling of insignificance, inferiority, subservience, etc.: In the presence of so many world-famous writers I felt very humble. |
| 3. | low in rank, importance, status, quality, etc.; lowly: of humble origin; a humble home. |
| 4. | courteously respectful: In my humble opinion you are wrong. |
| 5. | low in height, level, etc.; small in size: a humble member of the galaxy. |
–verb (used with object)
| 6. | to lower in condition, importance, or dignity; abase. |
| 7. | to destroy the independence, power, or will of. |
| 8. | to make meek: to humble one’s heart. |
[Origin: 1200–50; ME (h)umble < OF < L humilis lowly, insignificant, on the ground. See humus, -ile]__________________________________________________________
Humble is from the Latin that gives us humility and humus.
Umbles, the liver, heart and other organ meats, is from ‘numbles’ which goes through a Middle French version ‘nombles’ to Latin ‘lumbulus’, or little loin.
um·bles [uhm-buhlz] –plural noun
| numbles. |
[Origin: 1400–50; late ME]
num·bles [nuhm-buhlz] –plural noun
| certain of the inward parts of an animal, esp. of a deer, used as food. |
Also, nombles.
[Origin: 1275–1325; ME < MF nombles fillet of venison, pl. of nomble, dissimilated var. of *lomble < L lumbulus, dim. of lumbus loin. See lumb-, -ule]______________________________________________________________
People ate umble pie from medieval times to the 1800s; after that humble pie became a metaphoric dish while umble pie morphed into steak and kidney pie (which I’ve never tried). So umbles aren’t humble, and that has nothing to do with the first meaning of bumble, a cross between stumble and bungle in 1530. Bumblebee is based on the second meaning of bumble, though, and that word was new to me.
bum·ble·bee /ˈbʌmbəlˌbi/ ] –noun
| any of several large, hairy social bees of the family Apidae. |
[Origin: 1520–30; bumble2 + bee1]
bum·ble2 [buhm-buhl] –verb (used without object),
| to make a buzzing, humming sound, as a bee. |
[Origin: 1350–1400; ME bomblen, freq. of bomben to boom, buzz; imit.]__________________________________________________________
As it turns out, a bumble bee doesn’t bumble and a humble bee isn’t humble; they both are named for the buzzing sound they make while visiting flowers.
Who woulda thunk it?
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