Learn English – “Birds and bees” origins

etymologyeuphemismsphrases

"The birds and the bees" is a euphemistic way of referring to sex. As in, a parent 'telling their son about the birds and the bees' would be giving them "the talk" about sex.

Growing up, I got "the talk", but no references to birds or bees. Now I find myself wondering about the origins of the phrase, and particularly if there's some canonical story that goes along with it that somehow relates avians and insectoids to the basic mechanics of sexual intercourse. I struggle to envision any plausible way in which that metaphor might work (to the best of my knowledge, the only thing a bird might do with a bee is eat it). But I always like a good story.

So is there any such thing? Or is the term just a euphemism that's even more disconnected from the act it describes than normal for English euphemisms? What are the origins, exactly?

Best Answer

The Phrase Finder presents some interesting assumptions, but they can't say what the exact origin is. The earlest reference to the concept of birds and bees and "sex" appears to be as early as 1825:

Samuel Taylor Coleridge: (1825)

  • The origin of this phrase is uncertain, which is odd for what is such a common phrase and one that appears to be of fairly recent coinage. A work which is sometimes cited as making the link between birds and bees and human sexuality is Samuel Taylor Coleridge's poem Work without Hope, 1825:

    • All Nature seems at work. Slugs leave their lair - The bees are stirring - birds are on the wing - And Winter, slumbering in the open air, Wears on his smiling face a dream of Spring! And I, the while, the sole unbusy thing, Nor honey make, nor pair, nor build, nor sing.

  • That may have prepared the ground, but it is quite a long way from any explicit use of the phrase in regard to the sex education of children.

John Borrow:. (1875)

  • Another source that is sometimes claimed as the origin of the phrase is the work of the American naturalist John Burroughs. In 1875, he published a set of essays titled 'Birds and Bees, Sharp Eyes and other Papers'. Burrough's aimed to present nature to children in a way that they could easily understand and appreciate. As Mary Burt said in her introduction to the essays:

    • "Burroughs's way of investing beasts, birds, insects, and inanimate things with human motives is very pleasing to children."

  • We are edging nearer to the explicit use of 'the birds and the bees' as a device for children's sex education. Nevertheless, Burroughs can only be said, like Coleridge, to be preparing the ground. His work doesn't include any reference to the phrase with regard to sex and is, after all, aimed at educating children about nature, not using nature as a metaphor for human sexual behaviour.

Cole Porter: (1928)

  • Another commonly cited source is Cole Porter's neat lyric to the song Let's Do It, 1928:

    • When the little bluebird Who has never said a word Starts to sing Spring When the little bluebell At the bottom of the dell Starts to ring Ding dong Ding dong When the little blue clerk In the middle of his work Starts a tune to the moon up above It is nature that is all Simply telling us to fall in love

    • And that's why birds do it, bees do it Even educated fleas do it Let's do it, let's fall in love

  • Porter appears to have been making deliberate, if oblique, reference to 'the birds and the bees' and it is reasonable to assume that the phrase was common currency by 1928. The first reference that I can find to birds and bees in the context of sex education is a piece which was printed in the West Virginia newspaper The Charleston Gazette, in November 1929:

  • You never talked about them or even recognized nice crooning little babies until they were already here. Even then the mothers pretended to be surprised. It [sex] was whispered about, but never mentioned in public. Curious and unafraid, we looked into sex and found it perfectly natural, in the flowers and the trees the birds and the bees.

The the following source cites a very early usage of the expression "birds and bees" from the mid 17th century:

  • USC professor Ed Finegan found earlier use of the phrase in the diary of John Evelyn, published in 1644 (but written a century prior):

    • That stupendous canopy of Corinthian brasse; it consists of 4 wreath'd columns--incircl'd with vines, on which hang little putti [cherubs], birds and bees.*

  • Finegan theorizes that Romantic era poets were inspired by this passage's placement of "birds and bees" so close to Cherubs, which represent the sexuality of humans.

  • The earliest use of the term I found in the New York Times archives that could conceivably be in the modern context of sex is from a Civil War correspondence from Washington DC, published a little over a week after the start of the conflict, in 1861:

    • It is a warm, sunny day, this 20th day of April. The air is redolent of bursting buds, and the Capital Park is jubilant with the gushing songs of the birds and the humming of the honey-bees. The Northern air that has "aggressed" upon us for a week past has been driven back by the rebellious South wind, that comes, fresh from the fair faces it has carressed, and the waving tresses through which it has wantoned, to enchant the soul with its balmy breath, and entrance the mind with its dreamy sweetness.
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