The Bee's Knees
March 17, 2004
Well, I'm astounded. The bee's knees?? That's an expression? And all these years I've thought people were saying business in a funny way. Thanks to today's entry on Open Brackets, I can now stop giving my very own version of business (random funny pronunciation, with a hint of French accent probably) when I mean bee's knees.
I obviously looked into the origin of the expression and found that it was coined in the 1920s in America, when anything excellent had to be related to an animal part. The bee's knees are where the pollen is collected and are then a very important part of that insect. Hence saying that something is the bee's knees means that it's excellent.
In French? Extra, super, génial, le top du top, trop fort, trop cool, the list is endless.
Posted by céline, in Idioms, on March 17, 2004I am going to grin all day at the thought of you saying 'buzinezz' in an 'Allo 'Allo accent.
Posted by Jemima Kingsley on March 17, 2004 10:31 AMOh Celine, you crack me up, you really do :-)
That just made my day!
Posted by Sarah on March 17, 2004 1:50 PMI'm a'grinnin' too!
And thank you for the explaination of the
origin. I knew that it came from the 20's
or 30's but never new about the animal thing.
Thanks again.
Rym Rytr
see also: The cat's pajamas
Posted by Anita Rowland on March 20, 2004 8:31 PM"The dog's bollocks" means the same thing, but obviously shouldn't be used in polite company.
Posted by Jez on March 22, 2004 6:02 PMIt was simply curiosity that brought me to look up this site. What made me post the comment is that you posted this neat bit of info on my champagne birthday! Craziness!
Happy Belated St. Paddy's Day
Well, that's just the elephant's rectum! You learn something new every day.
Posted by Roger on June 17, 2004 2:34 PMMore examples of this taken from http://www.worldwidewords.org/ are: cat’s miaow, elephant’s adenoids, bullfrog’s beard, gnat’s elbows, monkey’s eyebrows and cat’s whiskers.
Posted by neferu on July 7, 2004 12:51 PMPrevious: March 15, 2004
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