The idiom “bee in your cap” refers to someone obsessed or flustered by an idea. Its origin dates back to the 16th century, and it may have evolved from “bee in your bonnet.” Thomas De Quincey used the phrase in 1845, and it has since become a common saying.
The phrase “bee in your cap” is an idiomatic expression used to refer to someone who appears to be obsessed with an idea or flustered by a concept. It could be pronounced to describe someone who talks with great enthusiasm about something that he can’t stop thinking about or discussing. For example, “He’s got a bee in the hood about the current pollution problem” describes someone who is concerned about pollution and goes out of his way to discuss it with as many people as possible.
An idiom is a common descriptive word or phrase whose meaning should not be taken literally. Although it is sometimes difficult to trace the original meaning of the idioms, the origin of the English saying “bee in your bonnet” seems to date back to the early 16th century, when Alexander Douglas wrote of someone who was in bed with a head full of bees. Going to bed with a head full of bees would seem to describe someone who can’t get his mind off something he feels is important. It is speculated that the “hood” part of the phrase could be derived from the large cap that a beekeeper wears. So if a beekeeper had a bee in his cap, it would be very difficult for him or her to focus on anything else.
Robert Herrick used the idea in the poem Mad Maid’s Song in 1648 when he wrote of a woman saying she would look for the bee that carried away her love in the cap of the man she loved. While this poem doesn’t contain the exact phrase “bee in the cap”, it would seem to describe a person who is obsessed with something; in this case it is love. After this poem was published, the sentence seemed to change to “bee in your bonnet” due to the alliteration of “bee” and “bonnet”.
The exact phrase was published in Thomas De Quincey’s Coleridge & Opium-eating in 1845: “John Hunter, though he had a bee in his cap, was indeed a great man.” Whether this was the first time the phrase was published is unknown, but it would appear that the phrase was in use at the time, because the author assumes the reader understands its meaning. Since then, the phrase “bee in your bonnet” has become a common English saying.
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