Etymology

honeycomb

hon·ey·comb
H4O1N1E1Y4C3O1M3B3

Today it means: A substance made by bees (clade Anthophila) primarily from beeswax which has hexagonal cells to hold their larvae, and for storing pollen and honey to feed the larvae and themselves when other food is scarce; it is also eaten by humans as part of comb-honey; (countable) a single sheet made up of two layers of this substance. Full definition →

Middle English honycomb ← Old English huniġcamb ← Proto-Indo-European *kn̥h₂ónks
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The story

  1. Proto-Indo-European · inherited from*ǵómbʰos“peg; tooth; row of teeth”
  2. Proto-Indo-European · inherited from*kn̥h₂ónks“honey”
  3. Old English · inherited fromhuniġcamb
  4. Middle English · inherited fromhonycomb
  5. English todayhoneycomb

The noun is derived from Middle English honycomb, from Old English huniġcamb, from huniġ (“honey”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *kn̥h₂ónks (“honey”)) + camb (“comb”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ǵómbʰos (“peg; tooth; row of teeth”)). The English word is analysable as honey + comb. The Oxford English Dictionary posits that the arrangement of several plates of wax “hanging parallel to each other from the roof of the hive suggests a comb with its teeth”. The verb is derived from the noun. Compare Saterland Frisian Hunichmoarte (“honeycomb”), West Frisian huningskiif (“honeycomb”), Dutch honingraat (“honeycomb”), German Honigwabe (“honeycomb”).

Words from the same roots

Proto-Indo-European*ǵómbʰos all →

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Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.