“None of your beeswax” (beeswax = business)
“Beeswax” means “business” in the popular expressions “Mind your own beeswax” and “None of your beeswax.” The spellings “bee’s wax” and “bees’ wax” are sometimes used. The expression “bee’s knees” for “business” is perhaps related.
“See if you can’t mind your own beeswax once and see how it goes” was printed in the Ellsworth (KS) Reporter on January 6, 1916. “Mind your own beeswax” was printed in the Lincoln (NE) Sunday Star on June 29, 1930.
“None of your beeswax!” was printed in the Paducah (KY) Evening Sun on April 28, 1928.
Wiktionary: none of your beeswax
Alternative forms
. mind your own beeswax
. none of your bee’s wax
. none of your bees’ wax
Etymology
Alteration of none of your business, to soften the force of the retort.
Phrase
none of your beeswax
1. A riposte to badgering questioning, expressing a refusal to answer, and an insistence that the questioner cease prying any further.
Merriam-Webster
beeswax noun
Definition of beeswax
1: a substance that is secreted by honeybees and is used by them for constructing the honeycomb, that is a dull, typically yellow solid that is plastic when warm, and that is composed primarily of a mixture of esters, hydrocarbons, and fatty acids : WAX sense 1
2US, informal : personal concern : BUSINESS —used chiefly in the phrases mind your own beeswax and none of your beeswax
Newspapers.com
6 January 1916, Ellsworth (KS) Reporter, “Additional Correspondence,” pg. 8, col. 1:
See if you can’t mind your own beeswax once and see how it goes.
Newspapers.com
28 April 1928, Paducah (KY) Evening Sun, “Cook-Coos” by Ted Cook, pg. 6, col. 2:
Withering retort, 1906—
“None of your beeswax!”
Newspapers.com
24 April 1929, Akron (OH) Beacon Journal, “Pippins and Cheese” by Jake Falstaff, pg. 4, col. 3:
It is true that the current generation says such things as faw-down-and-go-boom.
It is likewise true that the previous generation said, “None of your beeswax” and “What’s the deefooklety?”
Newspapers.com
29 June 1930, Lincoln (NE) Sunday Star, “People’s Forum,” pg. D4, col. 5:
But it’s “Soldier, your morals in La France, they were exceedingly lax,
Get back in the collar, and mind your own beeswax.”
Newspapers.com
24 February 1932, Austin (TX) American, “Cooks-Coos” by Ted Cook, pg. 6, col. 1:
Withing Sarcasm, 1907—
“Mind your own beeswax.”
Newspapers.com
14 September 1932, The Salt Lake Tribune (Salt Lake City, UT), “Cook-Coos” by Ted Cook, pg. 15, col. 5:
Snappy Comeback, 1906—
“Mind your own beeswax.”
Newspapers.com
28 April 1934, New York (NY) Age, “Siloam Pres. Church To Give Minstrel and Night Club Revue at Central Y.” by Chester R. Thomas, pg. 12 ,col. 5:
... (that’s none of your bees-wax); ...
Urban Dictionary
it’s none of your beeswax
Just like “it’s none of your business”, “It’s none of your beeswax” is another way to say that you don’t want someone to know about your private life.
A: Dude,Where have you been lately?
B: It’s none of your beeswax.
#it’s none of your beezwax#it’s none of your business#it’s not your cup of tea#it’s none of your friggin’ business#it’s none of your damned beeswax
by Tabo September 30, 2006
OCLC WorldCat record
Mind your own beeswax. #2
Author: Hannah Reed
Publisher: New York : Berkley Prime Crime, ©2011.
Series: Queen bee, 2
Edition/Format: Print book : Fiction : English : Berkley Prime Crime mass-market ed
Summary:
Story Fischer has her hands full with her successful local market, her Queen Bee Honey business, and her new maybe boyfriend, Hunter Wallace, but being abandoned by a hive looking for better digs puts the busy beekeeper in a bad mood. While she looks for the hive, the rest of Moraine, Wisconsin is searching for a woman with a checkered past whose return has the whole town buzzing. When she finds the dead body in the woods, she’s in a sticky situation indeed.
OCLC WorldCat record
None of your beeswax. (Stella Batts, vol. 7.)
Author: Courtney Sheinmel; Jennifer Bell
Publisher: Ann Arbor, MI : Sleeping Bear Press, 2014.
Series: Stella Batts, 7.
Edition/Format: Print book : Fiction : Primary school : English
Summary:
Stella keeps a secret from her sister Penny after her sister’s gold fish dies and later keeps a school secret from her best friend Evie. Both events cause misunderstandings and hurt feelings.