"Birds and the Bees"

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On 7/2/07, Fred Shapiro <fred.shapiro at yale.edu> wrote:
>
> A doctoral student working on her dissertation has e-mailed me asking
> about the origins of the expression "the birds and the bees" as a
> euphemism for sex.  Can anyone supply any information about early uses of
> this phrase?  I don't see it in OED or HDAS.

I haven't searched for the phrase, but The American Heritage
Dictionary of Idioms dates it to the latter half of the 19th century.
Cecil Adams cites the Morris Dictionary of Word and Phrase Origins,
suggesting that Coleridge's "Work Without Hope" (1825) was a possible
inspiration:

        http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a3_229a.html
        Where exactly "the birds and the bees" originated nobody
        knows, but word sleuths William and Mary Morris hint that
        it may have been inspired by words like these from the poet
        Samuel Coleridge: "All nature seems at work ... The bees
        are stirring--birds are on the wing ... and I the while,
        the sole unbusy thing, not honey make, nor pair, nor build,
        nor sing." Making honey, pairing ... yes, we can definitely
        tell what Sam had on his mind.

http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/stc/Coleridge/poems/Work_without_Hope.html


--Ben Zimmer

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