Meaning
None of your concern or business. Informal, playful, and mildly dismissive Regional use: United States, later wider English.
Origin
An American slang substitution in which beeswax humorously stands in for business, helped by their similar sound and initial letter. A 1928 newspaper called it a saying from 1906 but gave no evidence for that date; secure examples appear in 1928 and 1929. Stories claiming that women once filled facial scars with beeswax have no evidentiary connection to the phrase.
Research Sources
References used to check this entry’s meaning, history, or documented forms.
Variants
- It's none of your beeswax
- mind your own beeswax
- that's not your beeswax
Usage Examples
- Who left the parcel on my desk is none of your beeswax.
- Mara smiled and told the nosy neighbour to mind his own beeswax.