bee

Bee comes from Old English bēo, tracing back through Proto-West Germanic *bijā and Proto-Germanic *bijǭ to a Proto-Indo-European root *bʰey-, which simply meant 'bee'.

The word has stayed remarkably stable across centuries and dialects, passing from Middle English be, bee, beo, bey almost unchanged into modern English.

It's cognate with German Biene, Dutch bij, and Swedish bi, all descending from the same Germanic root — a whole family of European words for the same small insect.