clxxxvi

[the Latin definition as always comes from the Oxford Latin Dictionary]

Sententia: Vergil Georgics 4.21-22

ut, cum prima novi ducent examina reges

vere suo ludetque favis emissa iuventus,

...so that, when in their own new spring, the new queens lead out the swarms and the youths sent forth from the honeycombs play,...

The 4th book of Vergil's Georgics is all about bee-keeping. This passage is in the very beginning, and discusses the environment in which you should keep bees to make them happy. According to Vergil, they should be somewhere near a stream, which has nice shady willows, so that when the bees emerge anew in the spring, they can play about.

So, perhaps "a swarm of bees" isn't strictly speaking nerdy, but the word "examen" does at first appearance seem to resemble "exam," a nerdy word. The definition which I state is all that is in Oxford Latin Dictionary (OLD)--thus, Whitaker's Words defining examen as "test" isn't quite right. I trust the OLD as the foremost authority in Latin words, above all other dictionaries in its amazingness--check it out sometime. However, the verb "examino" seems to be more test-like, with a definition "to consider critically," and "examinatio" is "legal examination," which easily could go to "test." It is derived from a postulated word *exagsmen, probably from "exigo," for which the relevant definition is "to drive out," as in a swarm.