What’s the Word: There’s more than one use for beeswax
For those of us who love language, the Internet is a seemingly boundless source of information on the origins of words and phrases. Admittedly, much of the information is pure speculation, or fabrication in some cases, but some of it makes such good sense, or seems so feasible, that one can be persuaded to believe it is based on fact.
And some explanations are so bizarre, but still make sense by some trick of twisted logic, that they seem believable because of that very eccentricity.
One of my favorite Web sites called, simply enough, “Origin of Phrases” has one of those kinds of explanations for a phrase I have wondered about almost since I began to understand the spoken word. It’s been a favorite of the two youngest of my three sisters, and maybe my oldest sister as well, though I don’t remember her saying it much.
It’s probably not going to be too surprising when I tell you that particular phrase is, “Mind your own beeswax.” In fact, there’s a good chance it was one of the more common phrases little brothers heard during the ’50s and ’60s. Well, it was in my case anyway.
The problem was that, as a kid, I had somewhat of a tendency to make, what I felt, were quite intelligent suggestions as to what other people should do in any given situation, while it turned out my sisters weren’t all that suggestible, resulting in my familiarity with this phrase.
Of course, once I became hep to the vagaries of language, I realized this was just a form of the phrase, “Mind your own business,” but, as always, it aroused my aforementioned curiosity as to why “beeswax” was chosen as the substitute for business. It sounded a bit like business I supposed at the time, but not much, so that couldn’t be it. I remember thinking maybe it had something to do with earwax, not one of my favorite things since it really grossed me out when I found out I had it, but again, that didn’t make that much sense to me.
I also gave some thought to the idea that my sisters would have loved to stuff some beeswax in my ears to keep me from hearing something I wasn’t intended to hear, which I usually, and very obligingly I thought, passed along to lots of other people who weren’t intended to hear it, along with my helpful suggestions as to what should be done about it.
But after giving it a great amount of thought, I couldn’t figure out anything that made any real sense, and nobody else seemed to be able to explain it to me either, including my sisters, who, when I told them it didn’t make any sense, told me, with typical aplomb, to mind my own beeswax.
No help at all.
So when I ran up on the “Origin of Phrases” Web site I was delighted to see it was one of the phrases the site had listed. Needless to say, I clicked the link with great anticipation and was treated to one of the stranger, and I might say, even grotesque, explanations of a phrase origin I have run into in my explorations.
Herewith, that explanation. Make of it what you will, but like I said, it does make a sort of twisted sense, so I suppose it could be true. I can’t imagine anyone just thinking it up.
“This came from the days when smallpox was a common disease that caused disfigurement. Those who survived the disease were left with pock marks on their body and face. Ladies would fill in the pock marks with beeswax. However, when the weather was very warm, the wax might melt. But it was not the thing to do for one lady to tell another that her makeup was melting.”
No doubt. One thing’s for sure, I’ll never again think of that phrase in quite the same way.
(Charlie Johnson is news editor for the Standard. He can be reached at 473-2191 or by e-mail at [email protected].)