Word for the Wise

January 27, 2006 Broadcast

Topic: Mind your own bees wax and crack a smile

A correspondent who suspected hokiness asked us to confirm or debunk the following tale.

Way back when, in the early days of our country, women trying to cover up acne scars would spread bee's wax over their faces. Back then, when our foremothers would socialize, a woman who believed herself to be the object of another's gaze might caution the starer to "mind your own bee's wax." Should one of the women break into a smile, her mask of wax would rupture, and she would said to be "cracking a smile."

So are vanity and amusement truly the sources of the expressions "mind your own beeswax" and "crack a smile"? Not at all, although we admire the creativity that went into these explanations.

While the concept of countless early American women slathering their skin with bee's secretions might sound like a honey of an idea, there's no evidence it ever happened. In fact, beeswax is a 20th-century coinage, a playful twist of the word business.

Since there was no waxy, glossy coating hardened on the skin, there was no smile to crack. "Cracking a smile" is a figurative, not a literal development; it comes from the sense of crack that means "to show or begin showing, especially reluctantly or uncharacteristically."

Questions or comments? Write us at wftw@aol.com Production and research support for Word for the Wise comes from Merriam-Webster, publisher of language reference books and Web sites including Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, Eleventh Edition.