the bee's knees

English

Etymology

Attested since 1922, of unclear origin. There are several suggested origins, but it most likely arose in imitation of the numerous animal-related nonsense phrases popular in the 1920s such as the cat's pyjamas, cat's whiskers, cat's meow, gnat's elbow, monkey's eyebrows etc.

A popular folk etymology has the phrase referring to the world champion dancer Bee Jackson. Another suggestion is that the phrase is a corruption of business but this may be a back-formation. The singular bee's knee is attested from the late 18th century meaning something small or insignificant in the phrase big as a bee's knee. Also as weak as a bee's knee is attested in Ireland (1870). It is possible that the bee's knees is a deliberate inversion of this meaning but is not attested. Another possibility is that this is a reference to the (visible) blobs of pollen in bees' corbiculae.

Pronunciation

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

Noun

the bee's knees pl (plural only)

1. (idiomatic, colloquial) Something or someone excellent, surpassingly wonderful, or cool.

   Synonyms: cat's meow, cat's pajamas, dog's bollocks, the bomb; see also Thesaurus:best

   We had strawberry shortcake for breakfast on Saturday and the kids thought it was the bee’s knees.

   I used to play in a band when I was younger. We had a few fans and we thought we were the bee’s knees.

2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see bee,‎ -'s,‎ knee. Corbiculae.

Translations

something excellent, outstanding

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 好極了／好极了 (hǎo jíle), 很棒 (hěn bàng)

• Danish: please add this translation if you can
• Dutch: jé van hét, het neusje van de zalm
• Finnish: maailman paras juttu
• French: c’est le must (colloquial), le nec plus ultra (standard)
• German: das Gelbe vom Ei (de)
• Hungarian: csúcs (hu), legjobb (hu), legklasszabb, legmenőbb
• Italian: il meglio del meglio
• Portuguese: please add this translation if you can
• Russian: отпад (ru) m (otpad) (colloquial)
• Spanish: la mamá de Tarzán (referring to people, Hispano America), lo más, la hostia (colloquial, Spain), la leche (colloquial, Spain), la polla (vulgar, Spain), la repera (colloquial, Spain), la neta (colloquial, Mexico), las perlas de la virgen (colloquial, Mexico)

Further reading

• Mark Israel, alt.usage.english FAQ
• Kevin Cook, Dubbel Dutch, Kemper Conseil Publishing, 2001, p. 222
• Michael Quinion (2004) “The bee's knees”, in Ballyhoo, Buckaroo, and Spuds: Ingenious Tales of Words and Their Origins, Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Books in association with Penguin Books, →ISBN.