Phrase Origins: A Bee in One’s Bonnet

Having a bee in a bonnet certainly doesn’t seem comfortable. It seems like the bee would sting the head. Why would anybody mention having a bee in a bonnet and why would it become a phrase that people use at all?

I would always get confused about the phrase “a bee in one’s bonnet.” I thought it meant essentially the same thing as the phrase “as busy as a bee.” I would think that it meant busy because somebody with a bee in a bonnet might be running around because the person would be trying to get the bee out of the bonnet.

The thing is that I was completely wrong about the meaning of the phrase. It means “obsessed or preoccupied with an idea.”

This comes from the fact that a person would be concerned about getting the bee out of the bonnet over other things at the time. That would be the one thought a person would have – the bee in the bonnet and getting it out of the bonnet. Other thoughts wouldn’t matter immediately at that time.

It seems that “have beens in one’s head” was the first phrase that was used. I don’t quite understand why as I don’t think bee fly into peoples’ heads. It would make more sense to say somebody had bees around his or her head. Yet, the phrase “have beens in one’s head” is recorded in 1513 in Aeneis by Alexander Douglas. The exact quote is “Quhat bern be thou in bed with heid full of beis?”

It is in 1790 that “bee in one’s bonnet” appeared in writing. It is in Letters by the Reverend Charles Doddridge which states, “I suppose you have heard of Mr. Coward’s pranks. He has, as the Scotch call it, a Bee in his Bonnet.”

One theory is that the bonnet refers to the headgear that beekeepers usually wear to protect themselves from the bees.

However, another theory is that it is Scottish as the previous quote mentions.

This is because of the caps and bonnets that were worn by men in England in very early years. The fashion had gone out of style in England, but it had continued in Scotland.

No matter what the exact source may be, this phrase stayed in common use even as the fashion of wearing bonnets faded from most societies.

Sources:

Martin, Gary. “A bee in your bonnet”. The Phrase Finder. July 9, 2010 http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/bee-in-your-bonnet.html>.

Personal Experience