meaning - How did 'drone' come to mean both 'one who does no work' and 'one who spends most of his or her time doing menial work'?


Merriam-Webster's Eleventh Collegiate Dictionary (2003) gives the following definitions for drone in senses derived from the word for male honeybee:



drone \drōn\ n {ME fr. OE drān; akin to OHG treno drone, Gk thrēnos dirge} (bef. 12c) 1 : the male of a bee (as of a male honeybee) that has no sting and gathers no honey 2 : one that lives on the labors of others : PARASITE 3 : an unmanned aircraft or ship guided by remote control 4 a : DRUDGE 1 [one who is obliged to do menial work] b : DRUDGE 2 [one whose work is routine and boring]



It seems quite clear that definition 1 gave rise to definition 2 on the theory that bee drones are freeloading layabouts in an otherwise busy busy hive. But how and when did the connection to menial (especially) or routine and boring work arise?


I had thought that perhaps drone as "menial laborer" arose out of the noun drone in the sense of (according to MW) "a deep sustained or monotonous sound"—but the dictionary says no.




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