WORD FUN

I left a note to myself in the previous post to do two things.  First, I looked up the masculine form of laundress, and I found launderer.  I also found the word underlaundress, which is very intriguing to me.  I wonder if it is the junior laundress, or is it the lady who washes the underthings????

Second, I investigated the origin of the phrase "the bee's knees".  That proved to be very interesting.  The Oxford Dictionary reports "The phrase was first recorded in the late 18th century, when it was used to mean 'something very small and insignificant'. Its current meaning dates from the 1920s, at which time a whole collection of American slang expressions were coined with the meaning 'an outstanding person or thing'. Examples included the flea's eyebrows, the canary's tusks, and one that still survives - the cat's whiskers. The switch in meaning for the bee's knees  probably emerged because it was so similar in structure and pattern to these other phrases."

On the website Future Perfect, it is claimed that the phrase originated with the saying, "The be-all and the end-all."  This was shortened to say, "The Bs and the Es" and if you say it fast, it sounds like "The bee's knees".

Still other websites attribute the phrase to that famous Charleston dancer, Bee Jackson, as a nod to her wonderful legs.  

Bee Jackson, World Champion Charleston Dancer

Some claim that a plethora of expressions employing animal anatomies cropped up in the 1920's, as a kind of "flapper talk".  Besides the Bee's Knees, have you heard of the Elephant's Adenoids, the Ant's Pants, the Tiger's Spots,  Bullfrog's Beard, Cat's Meow, Dog's Bollocks or Bear's Ears?

Those are teeth in there, not adenoids!