Originally Posted By chickendumpling What in the wide, wide world of sports does this mean and wear, oops, where did it come from?
Originally Posted By Lisann22 An English slang phrase coined by w:Thomas A. Dorgan. The phrase means "the height of excellence" and became popular in the U.S. in the 1920s,[1] along with bee's knees, "the cat's whiskers" (possibly from the use of these in radio crystal sets), and similar phrases that didn't endure: "the eel's ankle", "the elephant's instep", "the snake's hip" and "the capybara's spats".[2] [edit] Idiom the cat's pyjamas (pajamas*) (idiomatic) A highly sought-after and fancy example of something, usually referring to inanimate objects. That new car was really the cat's pyjamas. [edit] Synonyms the bee's knees the cat's meow the mutt's nuts [edit] Usage notes British usage is pyjamas while American is pajamas [edit] See also "cat's pajamas" at Maven's Word of the Day, 2001-01-02 [edit] References ª <a href="http://www.randomhouse.com/wotd/index.pperl?date=20010102" target="_blank">http://www.randomhouse.com/wot d/index.pperl?date=20010102</a> ª Mark Israel, 'Phrase Origins: "The bee's knees"' alt.usage.english FAQ file,(line 4407), (29 Sept 1997). <a href="http://www.exw6sxq.com/sparky/aue_related/full_faq.html" target="_blank">http://www.exw6sxq.com/sparky/ aue_related/full_faq.html</a> <a href="http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/cat" target="_blank">http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ cat</a>'s_pyjamas
Originally Posted By Pixie Glitter <----still puzzling over whether it would be worse to be called an elephant's instep or eel's ankle (both of which are definitely preferable to mutt's nuts).
