Today's Word, "urtext" reminded me of urticaria, and I realized I didn't know its etymolgy. From AHD:

urticaria

SYLLABICATION: ur·ti·car·i·a
PRONUNCIATION: ûrt-kâr-
NOUN: See hives.
ETYMOLOGY: New Latin urticria, from Latin urtica, nettle.
OTHER FORMS: urti·cari·al —ADJECTIVE

So where did "hives" come from? Alas, AHD doesn't help:
hives

PRONUNCIATION: hvz
PLURAL NOUN: (used with a sing. or pl. verb) A skin condition characterized by intensely itching welts and caused by an allergic reaction to internal or external agents, an infection, or a nervous condition. Also called nettle rash, urticaria.
ETYMOLOGY: Origin unknown.

As a feeble jest, if you knock over a bee-hive, you can
get a stinging rash.

And the etymology of bee-hive from AHD is disappointing:

hive

PRONUNCIATION: hv
NOUN: 1a. A structure for housing bees, especially honeybees. b. A colony of bees living in such a structure. 2. A place swarming with activity.
VERB: Inflected forms: hived, hiv·ing, hives

TRANSITIVE VERB: 1. To collect into a hive. 2. To store (honey) in a hive. 3. To store up; accumulate.
INTRANSITIVE VERB: 1. To enter and occupy a beehive. 2. To live with many others in close association.
PHRASAL VERB: hive off To set apart from a group: hived off the department into another division.
ETYMOLOGY: Middle English, from Old English hf.

re:As a feeble jest, if you knock over a bee-hive, you can get a stinging rash.

and if you walk through nettles, you'll also get a stinging rash.

'Dock'-- a common name for another common weed,(i don't know the proper name!) when crushed, will exude a watery sap the will relive the sting almost immediately, (Nettles in, Dock out!)

thistles too are bristled with fine barbs that sting the skin as they peirce it. I don't know any cure for there barbs! (but both my son and i have cut thistle blossoms for bouquets!)

hive (OE hýf) is from the PIE root *k'eu-p-. *k'eu- 'to bow, bend, curve' with different augmentations gives L cubo 'to lie', Gk kuphos 'hump, hunch', (< *k'eu-bh-) L cumbo 'to lie', Welsh cwm, English hump via Scandinavian (< *k'eum-b(h)-). The unaugmented *k'eu- yields L cavus 'hollow, concave, vaulted' and many more (there are over three pages in Pokorny).

Dear of troy: I searched for "dock" and found a site with
a lot of information:
http://216.239.53.104/search?q=cache:LXO9dJxaWLoJ:207.21.248.193/weird-plants/20030612.asp+botany+dock&hl=en&ie=UTF-8

Sorry if it makes screen go wide.

When you do a search, you could eliminate the beginning of the string, like this:

http://207.21.248.193/weird-plants/20030612.asp

Dear AS: I am totally ignorant about string theory.
You must be special. None of my URLs end with my handle.

She's special, all right.