[plug] Re: How much can a koala bare ?

[Alex Polglaze]

Arie Hol wrote:


> 
> 8<-------- snip ---------->8
> 
> 
>>Not weighing into the conversation for Naziness' sake but because I'm
>>always interested in where these expressions come from.
>>
> 
> 
> 8<-------- snip ---------->8
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> Would you happen to know the origin of the expression :
> 
> "The bees knees"
> 
> Often used to describe something which most suitably solves a problem or dilemma.
> 
> My wife would like to know where the expression came from and how it became part of our language.
> 
> Any linguists on the list ???

How's this Arie?



Bee's knees, the - the height of perfection
A more intelligible piece of slang, 'no bigger than a bee's knee', is recorded 
from the late 18th century onwards. This might, or might not, have been 
transmogrified into the present expression by the bright young things of the 
1920s, when not only language, but music, dancing, dress and social behaviour 
were frantically valued - in the wake of the First World War - for their 
breaking of convention. Bee's knees, like the equally improbable cat's pyjamas 
and its variant the cat's whiskers - all three mean the same - belongs to that 
period and has survived because of an engaging idiocy reinforced by rhyme.

http://users.tinyonline.co.uk/gswithenbank/sayindex.htm




Alex