honey

adj

Etymology: From Middle English hony, honi, from Old English huniġ, from Proto-West Germanic *hunag, from Proto-Germanic *hunagą (compare Saterland Frisian Hunich, West Frisian hunich, German Low German Honnig, German Honig), from earlier *hunangą (compare North Frisian honning, hönning, West Frisian huning, Dutch honing, Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, and Norwegian Nynorsk honning, Swedish honung, Faroese hunangur, Icelandic hunang), 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”), Northern Kurdish şan (“beehive”), Northern Luri گونج (gonj, “bee”), Finnish hunaja.

1. Involving or resembling honey.

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

   “Dim as the forming of / Dew in the warming of / Moonlight, they light on the petals; / All is revealed to them; / All!—from the sunniest / Tips to the honiest / Heart, whence they yield to them / Spice, through the darkness that settles.”

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

   “Then I looked close at the scalp he stroked, which was of the silkiest blonde. For a moment I was sure it come from Olga’s dear head, and reckoned also he had little Gus’s fine skull-cover someplace among his filthy effects, the stinking old savage, living out his life of murder, rapine, and squalor, and I almost knifed him before I collected myself and realized the hair was honeyer than my Swedish wife’s.”

3. Honey-sweet.

   “But he answered the question with the honiest—Bohemian honey—of smiles: […]”

   “Mais il se ravisa et revint dire, de son air bonhomme : « Écoutez donc Lantier, j’ai besoin d’un homard…[…] »”

name

1. A surname.

noun

Etymology: From Middle English hony, honi, from Old English huniġ, from Proto-West Germanic *hunag, from Proto-Germanic *hunagą (compare Saterland Frisian Hunich, West Frisian hunich, German Low German Honnig, German Honig), from earlier *hunangą (compare North Frisian honning, hönning, West Frisian huning, Dutch honing, Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, and Norwegian Nynorsk honning, Swedish honung, Faroese hunangur, Icelandic hunang), 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”), Northern Kurdish şan (“beehive”), Northern Luri گونج (gonj, “bee”), Finnish hunaja.

1. A sweet, viscous, gold-colored fluid produced from plant nectar by bees, and often consumed by humans.

   “The honey in the pot should last for years.”

2. A variety of this substance.

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

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

3. Nectar.
4. Something sweet or desirable.

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

   “the honey of his language”

5. A term of affection.

   “Honey, would you take out the trash?”

   “Honey, I'm home.”

6. A woman, especially an attractive one.

   “Man, there are some fine honeys here tonight!”

   “It's hard on a fella, when he don't know his way around If I don't find me a honey to help me spend my money I'm gonna have to blow this town.”

7. A spectrum of pale yellow to brownish-yellow color, like that of most types of (the sweet substance) honey.
8. Precum; pre-ejaculate.

verb

Etymology: From Middle English hony, honi, from Old English huniġ, from Proto-West Germanic *hunag, from Proto-Germanic *hunagą (compare Saterland Frisian Hunich, West Frisian hunich, German Low German Honnig, German Honig), from earlier *hunangą (compare North Frisian honning, hönning, West Frisian huning, Dutch honing, Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, and Norwegian Nynorsk honning, Swedish honung, Faroese hunangur, Icelandic hunang), 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”), Northern Kurdish şan (“beehive”), Northern Luri گونج (gonj, “bee”), Finnish hunaja.

1. To sweeten; to make agreeable.
2. To add honey to.
3. To be gentle, agreeable, or coaxing; to talk fondly; to use endearments.

   “Honeying and making love.”

4. To be or become obsequiously courteous or complimentary; to fawn.

   “[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.”