BEE’S KNEES

[Q] From T Senthilnathan: “The bee’s knees informally means the best, the most desirable. How did the saying originate?”

[A] It’s one of a set of nonsense catchphrases that originated in North America in the 1920s, the period of the flappers, nearly all of which compared some thing of excellent quality to a part of an animal. You might at that period have heard such curious concoctions as cat’s miaow, elephant’s adenoids, bullfrog’s beard, gnat’s elbows, monkey’s eyebrows, cat’s whiskers, and dozens of others. Only a very few have survived, of which bee’s knees is perhaps the best known, though cat’s pyjamas (an exception to the anatomical rule) also survives.

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