the bee's knees

Etymology
Attested since 1922, of unclear origin. There are several suggested origins, but it most likely arose in imitation of the numerous animal-related nonsense phrases popular in the 1920s such as the, , cat's meow, gnat's elbow, monkey's eyebrows etc.

A popular has the phrase referring to the world champion dancer Bee Jackson. Another suggestion is that the phrase is a corruption of  but this may be a. The singular bee's knee is attested from the late 18th century meaning something small or insignificant in the phrase big as a bee's knee. Also as weak as a bee's knee is attested in Ireland (1870). It is possible that the bee's knees is a deliberate inversion of this meaning but is not attested. Another possibility is that this is a reference to the (visible) blobs of pollen in bees' corbiculae.

Noun

 * 1)  Something or someone excellent, surpassingly wonderful, or cool.
 * 2)  Corbiculae.
 * 1)  Corbiculae.
 * 1)  Corbiculae.
 * 1)  Corbiculae.

Translations

 * Chinese:
 * Mandarin: 好極了, 很棒
 * Danish:
 * Dutch: jé van hét, het neusje van de zalm
 * Finnish: maailman paras juttu
 * French: c'est le must (colloquial), le nec plus ultra (standard)
 * German:
 * Hungarian:, , legklasszabb, legmenőbb
 * Italian: il meglio del meglio
 * Portuguese:
 * Russian:
 * Spanish: la mamá de Tarzán (referring to people, Hispano America), lo más, la hostia (colloquial, Spain), la leche (colloquial, Spain), la polla (vulgar, Spain), la repera (colloquial, Spain), la neta (colloquial, Mexico), las perlas de la virgen (colloquial, Mexico)