Things I Learned: The dog's bollocks.

Jaws told me she thought I was the bee's knees today, so I reciprocated by telling her I thought she was the dog's bollocks. She did not believe this was a good thing, so after feeling lucky with Google I found a short definition here. I suspect my American audience might find this interesting.

"Excellent - the absolute apex. In other contexts the word bollocks (meaning testicles) has a negative connotation. For example:

- 'that's bollocks' -> 'that's rubbish'
- 'give him a bollocking' -> 'chastise him'
- 'He dropped a bollock' -> 'he made a mistake'

The reasons why the 'dog's bollocks' are considered to be the top of the tree aren't clear. It may be linked to an associated phrase - 'stand out like a dog's balls', i.e. 'outstanding', although I can find no evidence to indicate that phrase as being earlier than the 'dog's bollocks'. Dogs do enjoy licking their genitals of course but again, there's no evidence that links the coining of this phrase to that. It is most likely that this is just a nonsense phrase, coined because it sounds good. In that, it would join a long list of earlier nonsense phrases, e.g. 'the cat's pyjamas', 'the bee's knees' etc."