EN
This article discusses the semantics of the beekeeping term świepioto ‘a swarm of wild bees; the place where a swarm is staying’. The original meaning of this word ‘a swarm of wild bees’ is associated with the verb swepetati (Old Church Russian cвепетaти) ‘to swing oneself, to wobble’. The metonymic transfer ‘swarming of bees’ > ‘swarm of wild bees’ (there is a possibility of an etymological connection with the name of a bee slice, as a place of crowding for a swarm of bees) gave rise to the meaning ‘a place where the swarm is staying’, and even ‘wild honey’. These names were attested only in the lexis of North Slavs and their scope of usage is pointing to the North Slavic linguistic variant.