This week Shauna and Dan discover that Bunny Trails: A Word History Podcast is the bee's knees! Or at least we think so. It turns out, these two words together have had many meanings over the years before turning into something great. Bonus: Babe Ruth, Alanis Morissette, and the answer to everyone's question: Do bee's even have knees?
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Bunny Trails: A Word History Podcast
Episode 246: The Bee’s Knees
Record Date: September 1, 2024
Air Date: September 4, 2024
Intro
Shauna:
Welcome to Bunny Trails, a whimsical adventure of idioms and other turns of phrase.
I’m Shauna Harrison
Dan:
And I’m Dan Pugh
Each week we take an idiom or other turn of phrase and try to tell the story from its entry into the English language, to how it’s used today.
Opening Hook
Have you ever heard of something and thought, wow!, that’s great!. You might use phrases like cream of the crop, or best of the best. But I think my all-time favorite expression is you’re the bee’s knees.
Meaning
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the “bee’s knees” means
Quote
the acme of excellence
End Quote
https://www.oed.com/dictionary/bee_n1?tab=meaning_and_use#24589453
If you’ve only heard the word “acme” from the old looney toons cartoons and assumed it meant defective or something because Wile E. Coyote’s schemes were always thwarted using Acme brand products, you might be surprised to learn “acme” actually means ‘the top or the best’. The Coyote’s plans were always thwarted by his own incompetence, not by poorly made products.
So the way we used bee’s knees today just means something is the best. But there are earlier variations and earlier meanings to these two words being used together. But before we look at that I think there is something we need to get out of the way right now. It’s the question that many people have the moment they hear this phrase.
Do bees actually have knees?
Well, according to entomologist Richard Jones, writing for the BBC Wildlife Magazine:
Quote
Like all insects, bees do have knees. Speaking anthropomorphically, the joint between the femur (thigh) and tibia (shin) of an insect's leg is its knee. They don't, however, have kneecaps.
End Quote
https://www.discoverwildlife.com/animal-facts/insects-invertebrates/why-do-we-say-bees-knees
Okay, so bees do have knees, so to speak.
1797
This one comes to us from a letter by Mrs. Townley Ward dated 27 June 1797. While the letter itself wasn’t published anywhere I could find, we do see the letter referenced in the work Notes & Queries (1896) Volume X. Here is what Notes & Queries had to say:
Quote
A “Bee’s Knee” - I find the phrase “As big as a bee’s knee” in a letter from Mrs. Townley Ward to her sister, my grandmother, dated 27 June, 1797:
It cannot be as big as a bee's knee.
End Quote
https://archive.org/details/s8notesqueries10londuoft/page/260/mode/2up?q=bee%27s+knee
This first usage had a different meaning and spoke of only one knee. Back to the OED for this part, the bee’s knee meant
Quote
A type of something small or insignificant
End Quote
https://www.oed.com/dictionary/bee_n1?tab=meaning_and_use#24589453
1828
Let’s look at another example, this one from My Confidences. An Autobiographical Sketch Addressed to My Descendants by Frederick Locker-Lampson. In it he relays something that happened to him in 1828. Though the work it comes from was published in 1896.
Quote
I remember that the Nun pressed all sorts of parting gifts upon us, and when my father protested that we had no room for more, she said, offering some gift of slenderer dimensions, ‘Well, only this; it isn’t so big as a bee’s knee’. I have never heard the simile before, nor have I since.
End Quote
https://www.google.com/books/edition/My_Confidences/KmWCHYPzfC8C?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq=bee%27s%20knee
Though interestingly, let’s come back to Notes & Queries, Volume 10 dated 1896. The use of ‘Bee’s Knee’ in Locker-Lampson’s work is referenced here in a short piece by G.L. Apperson.
Quote
On this Mr. Locker-Lampson comments that he had never heard the simile before, nor had he since. I do not know whether the “bee’s knee” is familiar to other people, but I have known and used the simile ever since I was a small child.
End Quote
https://archive.org/details/s8notesqueries10londuoft/page/92/mode/2up?q=bee%27s+knee
1841
Here’s one more, just to help you understand the reach of the phrase. This one comes from the North Wales Chronicle out of Australia dated September 21, 1841. It follows the court-case of an alleged dog-snatcher.
Quote
Commissioner: Then you had no prepared bullock’s liver in your pockets to attract people’s dogs and enable you to steal them?
Plaintiff: Not a bit as big as a bee’s knee, on the word of a gen’leman.
End Quote
https://www.newspapers.com/image/391647410/?terms=%22bee%27s%20knee%22
There’s one more usage I want to address before we move to the version of the phrase most of us are aware of. It appears the phrase, in the late 1800s and into the early 1900s, was used to mean something that didn’t exist.
1896
I found an example in a newspaper from the Portland Sunday Telegram of Portland, Maine using bee’s knees to talk about a dinner of foreign food which seemed to baffle the author. I’ll include a snippet of the sentence to avoid the racist undertones.
Quote
Following a lunch of bird’s nests, bee’s knees, thrush ankles, humming bird saute and other delicacies…
End Quote
https://www.newspapers.com/image/846720318/?match=1&terms=%22bee%27s%20knees%22
1901
Here’s one from the Fall River Daily Globe out of Fall River, Massachusetts dated September 5, 1901.
Quote
A large plate glass window in Holden & Hindle’s store was broken about 11:15 o’clock last night. George Borden, of Westport, vender of watercress, bee’s knees, clam’s ankles, etc, did the trick, but he claims it was purely accidental.
End Quote
https://www.newspapers.com/image/603725915/?match=1&terms=%22bee%27s%20knees%22
1902
Here’s an example from The Sunday Oregonian out of Portland, Oregon dated September 7, 1902.
Quote
Of course there are some discomforts and inconveniences to put up with when one camps so far from civilization. If you stay long, canned foods become an abomination: milk and eggs are as unattainable as the proverbial bee’s knees and canary birds’ tongues.
End Quote
https://newspaperarchive.com/portland-sunday-oregonian-sep-07-1902-p-27/
1907
Okay, one more of these and then we’ll move to the phrase as we know it now. This one is from the Mount Carmel Item out of Pennsylvania dated June 28, 1907. This is from a running joke, a sort of viral social media post that people pile onto, but done in the newspapers.
Quote
“To prevent appendicitis, walk on all fours a half hour every day,” says a French newspaper. Let’s all get into the game. Here’s our offering: To avoid corns on your feet, walk first on one ear and then on the other. - Toledo Blade.
Here’s ours: To escape indigestion eat fried bee’s knees and stewed mosquito tongues and drink dish water. - Wellsboro Advocate.
Here’s ours: To cure consumption, take one-half an ounce of arsenic three times a day. - Bloomsburg Daily.
Here’s ours: To prevent running sores, tie ‘em fast.
End Quote
https://www.newspapers.com/image/75521623/?match=1&terms=%22bee%27s%20knees%22
With that, it’s time to move to our more modern uses, as in the 1920s, but first we need to say thank you to our sponsors.
A Quick Thank You
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Continued History
I’ll kick off by noting we are going to start much earlier than we usually do in the second half, but just because of the interesting history the words “bees” and “knees” have when put together, even though there doesn’t appear to be much, if any, connection between the three ways it has been used. But now, let’s jump into the phrase as we know it today.
The use of bee’s knees meaning something excellent or great seems to have taken off in the roaring 1920s, alongside flapper culture and a period of excesses during the party-tinged highlife among America’s well-to-do prior to the Great Depression.
It’s almost impossible to pin down when this phrase first started, so I’ll just jump in with some uses in the early 1920’s.
1921
This first one comes from The Sporting News, billed as The Baseball Paper of the World. It was published in St. Louis, Missouri and dated January 13, 1921.
Quote
“How are the diamonds in Cuba” asked one of the reporters.
“Cheap as dirt”, said Babe. “I had my eyes on a big sparkler that looked like the bees knees flashing on my tie, but--”
“No, I mean the kind of diamonds you knock the ball out of” explained the reporter.
“Oh, they’re bunk”, said Babe. “The fence is four blocks from home plate and (they) expect you to knock it over every time.
End Quote
https://newspaperarchive.com/st-louis-sporting-news-jan-13-1921-p-6/
In those days, Babe Ruth was a big deal. So it’s quite possible that him using the phrase could have jump started it into the average lexicon.
1922
This one is from a 1922 ad for a variety show.
Quote
…zoologially speaking, you’ll say Emil Hofmann’s new orchestra is ‘the elephant’s adenoids’; the homey surroundings ‘the cat’s whiskers’; the attentive service ‘the snake’s hips’, and you’ll find the Fun, Foolishment, and Frivol to be… ‘the bee’s knees’ - they’re always here.
In other words, the Gayety opens Saturday night, August 26.
End Quote
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/00225879/1922-08-25/ed-1/seq-4/#date1=1756&index=7&rows=20&searchType=advanced&language=&sequence=0&words=bee+knees&proxdistance=5&date2=1963&ortext=&proxtext=&phrasetext=bee%27s+knees&andtext=&dateFilterType=yearRange&page=1
1922
There’s even a song, called Bee’s Knees, billed as a fox trot. It was written by Ted Lewis in 1922. The fox trot is a kind of dance with long, continuous movements across the dance floor.
https://dp.la/item/f2c419f2f782ab922e64b780f8efa778
Supposed Origin
There is one suggested origin story that makes its way around the internet, but I’ll turn to Gary Martin of the Phrase Finder website, phrases.org.uk to debunk this one.
Quote
One tenuous connection between the bee’s knees and an actual bee relates to Bee Jackson. Ms. Jackson was a dancer in 1920s New York and popularised the Charleston, being credited by some as introducing the dance to Broadway in 1924. She went on to become the World Champion Charleston dancer and was quite celebrated at the time.
It’s not beyond the bounds of possibility that the expression became popular in reference to her and her very active knees, but 1924 post dates the origin of the phrase.
End Quote
We’ll talk more about the Charleston, both the song and the dance, in our behind the scenes video which airs every Friday on our Patreon, www.patreon.com/bunnytrailspod
Modern Uses
Now let’s time jump to some examples we all might remember.
2004
Knees of My Bees is a song by Alanis Morissette from her 2004 album So-Called Chaos. Here are some of the lyrics:
Quote
You are a gift promised sent with a wink
With tendencies for conversations that raise bars
You are a sage who is fueled by compassion
Comes to nooks and crannies, is bound for all stars
You make the knees of my bees weak, tremble and buckle
You make the knees of my bees weak
End Quote
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZvWcCmn_g8
2012
The Bee’s Knees is a children's book by Steve Colemen and Phoebe Wright. It was published in 2012. Here is the synopsis from the publisher.
Quote
The Bee's Knees, (along with The Cat's Whisker) is one of the many non-sense rhymes popular with the socialities of the Roaring (Nineteen) Twenties that has stood the test of time and still used in common language today. This version is a 21st Century variation....with a twist. Really though.... "The Bee's Knees" means "Just Right,Terrific, The Ant's Pants", if you please. That Cheeky Bee Is such a tease.
End Quote
https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Bees_Knees/tzFiLwEACAAJ?hl=en
2019
The Bees Knees is a 2019 song by Juice WRLD. Here are some of the lyrics and, frankly, the only snippet I can find that wouldn’t earn us an explicit tag.
Quote
Phone line going AWOL, I'm the plug now
They act like my music is the new drug in town
The bees knees (the bees knees), I am
The bees knees (the bees knees)
End Quote
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVNIMfccvgw
2020
The Bee’s Knees is a children’s book by Sam Tracey Tyson and Dana Sullivan Tyson. It was released in 2020. Here is the synopsis from the publisher.
Quote
Eloise is a busy bee with a problem. She has knobby knees that prevent her from doing all the same things the other bees do. Will she find her special gift and realize that "bee-ing" different doesn't mean that she is unable to be an important member of her hive?
End Quote
https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Bee_s_Knees/SpiDzQEACAAJ?hl=en
2023
The Bee’s Knees is a short film written and directed by Crew Simpson. The director’s statement is:
Quote
I want to be able to seamlessly work abstract and experimental passages into stories that deal with intense human experience.
End Quote
The synopsis is a grandpa with dementia tells a love story to his wildly imaginative grandchild.
We’ll link to the short film on youtube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0eBRP3pKfQg
Meme
Last one, and this is one of my favorite memes. I first saw it before COVID, but I don’t know when it started circulating. It features a cute little bee, sitting on a window sill, staring out the window reflecting on his life. The captions read:
Quote
I don’t know man. It’s just… what if my knees aren’t that great?
End Quote
Wrap Up
I really like this phrase. In a world of crass language, I really enjoy the innocence of this phrase. It feels like a product of a bygone era but one that has enjoyed enough staying power that we are still using it today, from children’s books to rap music to contemplative documentary
Dan:
That’s about all we have for today. If you have any thoughts on the show, or pop culture references we should have included,
reach out to us on Patreon, patreon.com/bunnytrailspod or comment on our website bunnytrailspod.com
Shauna:
It’s poll time!
Recently, we asked our Patrons if they enjoy eating breakfast for dinner. And the results were the only objectively correct answer. 100% for yes.
All breakfast foods are delicious. Typically, mine is only of the caffeine variety but the items people make for breakfast are my favorite foods.
Jan said
Quote
Bacon, sausage, eggs, hash browns, toast and jelly, pancakes. French toast is good. Plenty of fried spam.
End Quote
And Emily followed up with
Quote
Waffles for dinner is a Sunday night tradition in my home
End Quote
Dan:
JGP added
Quote
At least once a month we make a dinner of hashbrowns fried up with a bunch of vegetables like onion, green peppers, broccoli and whatever else we have on hand. Add a little crumbled sausage and or some cheddar cheese and it's a great meal.
End Quote
I will eat breakfast food at any meal. Eggs, hashbrowns, pancakes, toast, sausage, bacon, OJ... I'm in hog heaven. There is a diner in town and whenever I go I get the chicken fry with eggs and toast smothered in gravy. And of course, biscuits and gravy are amazing. Now I’m hungry. Let’s wrap up the show.
Shauna:
As a reminder, our silly polls mean absolutely nothing and are not scientifically valid. And patrons of all levels, including our free tiers, can take part. Head over to patreon.com/bunnytrailspod to take this week’s poll!
Outro
Shauna:
Thanks for joining us. We’ll talk to you again next week. Until then remember,
Together:
Words belong to their users.
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