Back in the 1960s, T.S.K. Johansson had  recurring articles in "Bee World" with the title "For those Interested in History." I suppose this was an early example of a trigger warning. When I was in high school, those words would surely send me in another direction, being much more interested in the Arts and Science.

Times have changed. Now I am fascinated by getting at the source of ideas. A while back I mentioned the phrase "card of honey" and several people assured me that it came from the French carte, meaning frame. A frame of honey. Of course, this isn't true at all. The use of "card of comb" predates the use of frames in hives.

> The great enemy of bees, the Miller Moth, cannot harm them, as it is very seldom they will enter one of these hives, and if they should, the bee-keeper can easily take out a card or two of comb and pick them out with his fingers, and not get stung in the operation, as they will seldom if ever attempt to sting when properly managed.—Kidder 1858

> Mr. Quinby is the only person who has added any utility to the “movable comb hive.” Much difficulty has been experienced in using the comb-frame, for the reason that bees do not uniformly build each card of comb correctly and separately within each frame. —C. J. Robinson. Feb 4, 1864

Obviously the notion of building a card of comb in a frame makes no sense, if card means frame. What I have found is that the term derives from the older phrase "a card of gingerbread." Louisa May Alcott mentions this in her 1867 book "Little Women."

> Jo remembered the kind old gentleman who used to let her build railroads and bridges with his big dictionaries, tell her stories about the queer pictures in his Latin books, and buy her cards of gingerbread whenever he met her in the street.

But as with many things, the word itself came from the "old world." In German we can find "Lebkuchenkarte."

> Grundlage der Lebkuchenkarte ist ein Kraftpapier Blatt .
[The basis of the gingerbread card is a sheet of kraft paper]

It seems pretty clear that the name comes from the fact that a slab of honey resembles a slab of gingerbread or other cake.

“Always a company of hungry wild animals,” says the mother, looking over her little flock of boys and girls, and she fastens her needle into the half finished hem of Katie's apron, and goes to the cupboard and reaches down the card of cake, and cuts out four generous slices, and four small pairs of hands are eagerly lifted to receive them. “There now, children, you mustn’t have another mouthful before tea time.”—Arthur's Home Magazine  1861

For those not Interested in History, my apologies.

PLB

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