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The bee's knees and dressed to the nines — where they come from
A challenge from Princeton
Dear Matthew: I was in Princeton last week suffering the stings of East Coast intellectualism. I succumbed to bragging about San Diego’s own Matthew Alice. My Princetonian responded with a challenge. “Have this maven of yours come up with the history of the two sayings ‘the bee’s knees’ and 'dressed to the nines,’ and we’ll acknowledge his prowess. Do your stuff, Matthew Alice, and save your reputation as well as San Diego — Victor A. Neuman, downtown
A heavy burden, Victor, meeting the challenge of all that tweedy smugness, especially on the battleground of word origins. Etymologists are a contentious lot. But here goes. Though there are other less plausible explanations, most word experts believe that “to the nines” is a corruption of the Middle English expression to then eyne, “to the eyes,” originally applied to more than just someone’s attire and meaning “to perfection.” The Roaring ’20s gave us “It’s the bee’s knees” (meaning “It’s the best”) and many more sassy superlatives. The decade was a time of fads and crazes, one of which was making up expressions that combined animals with illogical body parts or clothing; the cat’s pajamas, the ant’s pants, the clam’s garters, the eel’s ankles, the snake’s hips, the gnu’s shoes, and the elephant’s arches all date from the ’20s. Only a few survived the sobering years of the Depression and World War II. Hope that satisfies the uppity Ivy Leaguer and redeems us rubes in the eyes of the East.
Here's something you might be interested in.
The bee's knees and dressed to the nines — where they come from
A challenge from Princeton
The bee's knees and dressed to the nines — where they come from
A challenge from Princeton
Dear Matthew: I was in Princeton last week suffering the stings of East Coast intellectualism. I succumbed to bragging about San Diego’s own Matthew Alice. My Princetonian responded with a challenge. “Have this maven of yours come up with the history of the two sayings ‘the bee’s knees’ and 'dressed to the nines,’ and we’ll acknowledge his prowess. Do your stuff, Matthew Alice, and save your reputation as well as San Diego — Victor A. Neuman, downtown
A heavy burden, Victor, meeting the challenge of all that tweedy smugness, especially on the battleground of word origins. Etymologists are a contentious lot. But here goes. Though there are other less plausible explanations, most word experts believe that “to the nines” is a corruption of the Middle English expression to then eyne, “to the eyes,” originally applied to more than just someone’s attire and meaning “to perfection.” The Roaring ’20s gave us “It’s the bee’s knees” (meaning “It’s the best”) and many more sassy superlatives. The decade was a time of fads and crazes, one of which was making up expressions that combined animals with illogical body parts or clothing; the cat’s pajamas, the ant’s pants, the clam’s garters, the eel’s ankles, the snake’s hips, the gnu’s shoes, and the elephant’s arches all date from the ’20s. Only a few survived the sobering years of the Depression and World War II. Hope that satisfies the uppity Ivy Leaguer and redeems us rubes in the eyes of the East.
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