bees knees - where does this expression come from - it's the bees knees?

Question

and am i right in thinking bees don't have knees!

Answer 1

perhaps they got mistaken for bee gees!

Answer 2

Think about what it sounds like. The Bee's Knees The Beezneez The Business. When you say something is the business you mean it's great, bees knees is just a variation of the term.

Answer 3

The Bee's Knees" is a term indicating excellence - the highest quality.
Because bees carry pollen back to the hive in sacs on their legs. The allusion is to the concentrated goodness to be found around the bee's knee.

Stories in circulation about the origin of
"The Bee's Knees" phrase include: "b's and e's," short for "be-alls and end-alls;" and a variation/revision of the term "business."

Answer 4

i agree. i dont think that bee's have knees. my grampa says it all the time, some car part is the "bee's knees" this is the "bee's knees" your the "bee's knees". Shut up you old man!! LOL he says it about everything and when i ask him what he means, or where the saying comes from he says that the saying is the "bee's knees". I think that maybe some very stoned person came up with it one day and everyone else started saying it. i am almost 100 persent certain that bees dont have knees. sorry i couldent really help you, but i dont think many people will be able to.
xx kell

Answer 5

The expression seems to have had two births. The first was in the 18th Century when it meant something small and insignificant. The second when it emerged as "flapper slang" in the US during the '20's. Frankly I don't know if bees do have knees - never got close enough to one to look. But we can safely assume that the rhyme prevailed.

Answer 6

http://www.takeourword.com/Issue097.html
"If you've ever seen a bee, then you know how tiny its knees must be(e). That's what the term first referred to - anything small or insignificant. It first appears in writing at the end of the 18th century in a letter: "It cannot be as big as a bee’s knee" (1797). And, as we mentioned earlier in this column, it is not all that uncommon for slang expressions like that to have a complete reverse of meaning, such that by the early 20th century, bee's knees meant "excellent"."

Answer 7

Howdy,

While nobody knows for sure, most people give credit to a guy named Tad Dorgan.

Dorgan was a cartoonist and sportswriter well-known for coining phrases that didn't make much sense but were nevertheless pleasing to the ear. Other examples -- "the cat's pajamas" and "for crying out loud."

As for what Dorgan meant by "bee's knees," there are many theories. Some think it's shorthand for "it's business" meaning "it's great." You can read other theories by checking out the third link below.

Mike

Answer 8

It actually means 'The business' but over time like so many things words get changed slightly so if you say the word business slowly it can be mistaken for 'Bees knees'

Answer 9

The serious answers to your question are covering all of the theories given on web sites (except one: that "bee's knees" was a corruption of "business" -- not a good one, I think).

Having researched this one pretty thoroughly, I would say we haven't a clue where it came from.

Nowadays we have records of how phrases came about (think of the Watergate scandal, named after an apartment complex, which gave rise to "gate" meaning scandal, as in "Koreagate"). Who would ever have believed that origin if we didn't have records of it? Well, in the early 1900's, the records were fewer, and sometimes we just have no clue what is the correct origin. I think this is one of those. Sorry!

Answer 10

I don't know but as an expression it's the dogs b*llocks don't you think!

Edit: Bees do have knees, with sacks which is where they store the pollen they collect.

Answer 11

where the bee's pollen collects is in the middle of their legs and there is no clear origin of the phrase... flappers used to use it back in the twenties and that's when it first became popular