Bee in one’s bonnet

Origin of: Bee in one’s bonnet

Bee in one’s bonnet

A state of agitation or pre-occupation, as one would experience if one had a bee trapped under one’s headgear. The expression in this form is most probably Scottish and dates from the 18th century, as evidenced from Letters by Philip Doddridge, who writes in 1790, “He has, as the Scotch call it, a bee in his bonnet”. A similar but much earlier expression is found in Aeneis, a work written in 1513 by Alexander Douglas, “Be thou in bed with a head full of bees?”