honey

From Middle English hony, honi, from Old English huniġ, from Proto-Germanic *hunagą (compare West Frisian hunich, German Honig), from earlier *hunangą (compare Swedish honung), from Proto-Indo-European *kn̥h₂onk-o-s, from *kn̥h₂ónks. Cognate with Middle Welsh canecon (“gold”), Latin canicae pl (“bran”), Tocharian B kronkśe (“bee”), Albanian qengjë (“beehive”), Ancient Greek κνῆκος (knêkos, “safflower”), Kurdish şan (“beehive”).

• IPA^(key): /ˈhʌni/

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• Rhymes: -ʌni
• Hyphenation: hon‧ey

honey (usually uncountable, plural honeys)

1. (uncountable) A viscous, sweet fluid produced from plant nectar by bees. Often used to sweeten tea or to spread on baked goods.
2. (countable) A variety of this substance.
   • 1908, United States. Bureau of Chemistry, Bulletin‎, number 110-114:

     The physical properties of the different honeys, color, granulation, aroma, flavor, etc., are indicated in the table only in a very general way.

   • 1949, Roy A. Grout, editor, The Hive and the Honey Bee‎:

     If two of the California honeys, western hyssop and fleabane, having a positive polarization at 200 C. are disregarded, then the remaining...

   • 2011, Stephen Taylor, Advances in Food and Nutrition Research‎, volume 62:

     Eucalyptus honeys could be characterized based on seven volatile compounds, whereas lavender honeys had only five...

3. (figuratively) Something sweet or desirable.
   • 1595, William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, Act 5, Scene 3, lines 91–93:

     O my love, my wife! / Death, that hath suck'd the honey of thy breath / Hath had no power yet upon thy beauty.

   • (Can we date this quote?) Shakespeare

     the honey of his language

4. A term of affection.

   Honey, would you take out the trash?

   Honey, I'm home.

5. (countable, informal) A woman, especially an attractive one.

   Man, there are some fine honeys here tonight!

6. A spectrum of pale yellow to brownish-yellow colour, like that of most types of (the sweet substance) honey.

   honey colour:  

• (sweet fluid from bees): mel
• (term of affection): darling, sweetie, see also Thesaurus:sweetheart

• food

• Sranan Tongo: oni

honey (not comparable)

1. Involving or resembling honey.
   • 1599 William Shakespeare, Henry V, act 1, scene 2:

     So work the honey-bees, / Creatures that by a rule in nature teach / The act of order to a peopled kingdom.

2. Of a pale yellow to brownish-yellow colour, like most types of honey.

honey (third-person singular simple present honeys, present participle honeying, simple past and past participle honeyed)

1. (transitive) To sweeten; to make agreeable.
2. (intransitive) To be gentle, agreeable, or coaxing; to talk fondly; to use endearments.
   • Shakespeare

     Honeying and making love.

3. (intransitive) To be or become obsequiously courteous or complimentary; to fawn.
   • 1847, Alfred Tennyson, The Princess: A Medley, London: Edward Moxon, […], OCLC 2024748, prologue, page 6:

     [O]ne / Discuss'd his tutor, rough to common men / But honeying at the whisper of a lord; / And one the Master, as a rogue in grain / Veneer'd with sanctimonious theory.

• Appendix:Colors