(A reader asked about the origin of "Spelling Bee" in Fanba, the translation Q&A section, here comes the answer from Zhang Xin, a columnist from Chinadaily website.)

Everybody knows what a spelling bee is?

Yes, it’s a spelling competition among people, especially school children, for spelling out English words. The “bee” in spelling bee means a meeting of many people for a particular activity.

The word “bee” is generally believed to have derived from observing the activity of swarming bees. Swarming because bees like to work together in droves, hence the spelling bee for a spelling contest participated in by a large group of people.

Hope this helps.

（编者注：大家都知道bee 就是蜜蜂，但spelling bee可不是拼写蜜蜂的意思，而是指拼写测验或拼字比赛。

Bee 除了指蜜蜂外，还有另外一种意思，即“人们聚集在一起执行某种任务或进行一场比赛”。这种用法始于18世纪的美国，是由蜜蜂的特征引申出来的，后来渐渐比match 这个词用得更普遍。

Bees 通常形容一个团体中的许多人共同做一件事。这件事很难由某个人单独完成，或者是很多人参与时更有乐趣。在友好的竞争气氛下，工作效率会更高。Spelling bee 就是这样一种竞赛。

美国学校过去经常举行背诵比赛，让学生展示自己所学的知识。每当比赛举行的时候，全镇人都来观看。学生们会按要求成篇成篇地背诵Bible，或者拼写老师能想出来的最难的词。在比赛中表现最好、一个错都不犯的学生会获得嘉奖。）

Go to Zhang Xin's column

About the author

Zhang Xin is Trainer at chinadaily.com.cn. He has been with China Daily since 1988, when he graduated from Beijing Foreign Studies University. Write him at: zhangxin@chinadaily.com.cn, or raise a question for potential use in a future column.

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