n. [Lat. apis; the Goth. word is not on record; A. S. beo; Engl. bee; O. H. G. pia; Germ. biene, and older form beie, Grimm i. 1367; Swed.-Dan. bi]:—a bee; the spelling in Icel. with ý is fixed by long usage, and by a rhyme in the Höfuðl., Jöfurr sveigði ý | flugu unda bý, where ý (a bow) and bý (bees) rhyme; because perhaps an etymology from bú floated before the mind, from the social habits of bees, Barl. 86; the simple by is quite obsolete in Icel. which only uses the compd,