honeycomb

English
WOTD – 19 October 2023

Etymology
PIE word
*kn̥h₂ónks
PIE word
*ǵómbʰos
Honeycomb (sense 1) with bee drone larvae and eggs.
Jars of comb-honey consisting of honeycomb (sense 1) and honey for eating.
A honeycomb in geometry (sense 2.1) made of truncated octahedra.
A United States Army rigger sawing honeycomb cardboard (sense 2.2.3) to pack airdrop bundles for delivery to Iraqis in November 2014.
The honeycomb (sense 2.3) or reticulum of a cow prepared for eating, showing its honeycomb-like internal surface.
The honeycomb ornamentation (sense 2.4) of a ceiling of the Alhambra in Granada, Spain.
Pieces of honeycomb toffee (sense 3.2).

The noun is derived from Middle English hony comb, from Old English huniġcamb,[1] 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.[2][3] 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”.[4]

The verb is derived from the noun.[5]

Pronunciation
  • (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˈhʌnikəʊm/
  • Audio (Southern England)(file)
  • (General American) IPA(key): /ˈhʌniˌkoʊm/
  • Hyphenation: hon‧ey‧comb

Noun

honeycomb (countable and uncountable, plural honeycombs)

  1. (uncountable) 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.
  2. (countable, by extension) Something resembling honeycomb (sense 1) in having numerous cells or small holes.
    The wood porch was a honeycomb of termite tunnels before we replaced it.
    1. (countable, geometry) A space-filling packing of polytopes in three- or higher-dimensional space.
    2. (countable, technology)
      1. The texture of the surface of a solar cell, intended to increase its surface area and capture more sunlight.
      2. (archaic) A defect in a material (especially metal) where small holes are present; specifically (construction), a defect in concrete consisting of numerous voids resulting from the failure of mortar to effectively fill the spaces among coarse aggregate particles.
      3. (chiefly aviation) Material manufactured with small hollow cells, sometimes sandwiched between two flat sheets, which is used to make light, stiff structural components.
    3. (countable, zoology) Short for honeycomb stomach (“the reticulum or second compartment of the stomach of a cow or other ruminant”).
      • [1658, Thomas Browne, “The Garden of Cyrus. […]. Chapter III.”, in Hydriotaphia, Urne-buriall, […] Together with The Garden of Cyrus, […], London: […] Hen[ry] Brome […], →OCLC, page 149:
        A rudimentall reſemblance hereof there is in the cruciated and rugged folds of the Reticulum, or Net-like Ventricle of ruminating horned animals, vvhich is the ſecond in order, and culinarily called the Honey-comb.]
      • [1791, Oliver Goldsmith, “Of Ruminating Animals”, in An History of the Earth, and Animated Nature. […], new edition, volume III, London: […] F[rancis] Wingrave, successor to Mr. [John] Nourse, […], →OCLC, page 3:
        Of the four ſtomachs vvith vvhich ruminant animals are furniſhed, the firſt is called the paunch, vvhich receives the food after it has been ſlightly chevved; the ſecond is called the honeycomb, and is properly nothing more than a continuation of the former; […]]
    4. (uncountable, architecture) Short for honeycomb work (“especially in Moorish architecture: a form of ceiling ornamentation (especially of an arch or dome) made up of small vaulted arches”).
      Synonym: muqarnas
  3. (countable, figurative) Something resembling honeycomb in sweetness; hence, something desirable or pleasant.
    • 1657, Samuel Purchas, “[The Second Part. Being Meditations and Observations, Theologicall, and Morall, upon the Nature of Bees.] The Third Centurie.”, in A Theatre of Politicall Flying-Insects. […], London: […] M. S. for Thomas Parkhurst, […], →OCLC, section XXXVI, page 360:
      [F]or he [Jesus Christ] vvas the Lion of the tribe of Judah, and from him being crucified for our ſinnes, and ſlaine for our redemption, vve receive our honey and our honey-combe, that is to ſay, peace vvith God the Father.
    • 1817 December 31 (indicated as 1818), [Walter Scott], chapter II, in Rob Roy. […], volume I, Edinburgh: […] James Ballantyne and Co. for Archibald Constable and Co. […]; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, →OCLC, page 41:
      Yes, Frank, what I have is my own, if labour in getting, and care in augmenting, can make a right of property; and no drone shall feed on my honeycomb.
    • 1842, Alfred Tennyson, “[English Idyls and Other Poems. (Published 1842.)] Edwin Morris; or, The Lake”, in Poems, 8th edition, London: Edward Moxon, […], published 1853, →OCLC, page 231:
      [W]as he not / A full-cell'd honeycomb of eloquence / Stored from all flowers? Poet-like he spoke.
    1. (countable, archaic) Used as a term of endearment: honey, sweetheart.
    2. (uncountable, chiefly Australia, British, often attributive) A crumbly confection usually made by boiling together golden syrup, sugar, bicarbonate of soda, and water.
      honeycomb toffee

Derived terms

Translations
space-filling packing of polytopes in three- or higher-dimensional space
short for honeycomb stomach — see reticulum
short for honeycomb work — see honeycomb work
used as a term of endearment — see honey
crumbly confection — see honeycomb toffee

Verb

honeycomb (third-person singular simple present honeycombs, present participle honeycombing, simple past and past participle honeycombed)

  1. (transitive, often passive voice)
    1. To riddle (something) with small holes, especially in a pattern resembling a honeycomb (noun sense 1); also, to cause (something) to become hollow or weakened in this way.
      • 1882, Laurence Oliphant, “Old and New”, in The Land of Khemi: Up and Down the Middle Nile, Edinburgh, London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC, page 107:
        The ordinary tourist who visits the Boulak museum and the Necropolis of Sakkara, and then runs up to the First or the Second Cataract, is apt to think that the subject must be wellnigh exhausted; and is scarcely conscious of the fact that the banks of the Nile from Cairo to Thebes, between which he glides so rapidly in a Cook's steamer, or, more tranquilly, journeys in a dahabeeya, are strewn with the mounds of ancient cities, especially on the eastern shore, and that its cliffs are honeycombed with tombs.
    2. To bore cavities or tunnels inside (something).
      Termites will honeycomb a porch made of untreated pine.
      • 1791, Oliver Goldsmith, “Of Multival[v]e Shell-fish”, in An History of the Earth, and Animated Nature. […], new edition, volume VII, London: […] F[rancis] Wingrave, successor to Mr. [John] Nourse, […], →OCLC, page 62:
        [M]any of the pillars of the temple of Serapis at Puteoli vvere penetrated by theſe animals. […] [T]he pholas muſt have pierced into them ſince they vvere erected; for no vvorkmen vvould have laboured a pillar into form, if it had been honey-combed by vvorms in the quarry.
      • 1975, James Clavell, chapter LVII, in Shōgun: A Novel of Japan, 1st American edition, volume 2, New York, N.Y.: Atheneum Books, →ISBN, book V, page 967:
        Twenty ninja followed him from the darkness and another fifteen took up defensive positions at both ends of the corridor to guard this escape route that led through a maze of forgotten cellars and passages honeycombing the castle to one of Ishido's secret bolt holes under the moat, thence to the city.
    3. To decorate (something) with a honeycomb pattern.
    4. (figurative, chiefly passive voice) To make way deeply into (something) so as to weaken it; to undermine.
    5. (architecture) To ornament (a ceiling) with honeycomb work (see noun sense 2.4).
  2. (intransitive, also figurative, archaic) To become riddled with small holes, especially in a pattern resembling a honeycomb; also, to become hollow or weakened in this way.

Derived terms

Translations
to make way deeply into (something) so as to weaken it — see undermine

See also

References
  1. “hǒnī-cōmb, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
  2. “honeycomb, n.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, July 2023.
  3. “honeycomb, n.”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present, reproduced from Stuart Berg Flexner, editor in chief, Random House Unabridged Dictionary, 2nd edition, New York, N.Y.: Random House, 1993, →ISBN.
  4. “comb, n.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, September 2023; “comb, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
  5. “honeycomb, v.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, July 2023.

Further reading
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