What is the origin of the phrase "The Cat's Pajamas"?
"The cat's pajamas" (or pyjamas, depending on whether you're writing in American and British English) means, basically, "a really good thing" or sometimes "a really good new thing."
I'm not sure where that first answerer got their information, but the word has been around since the 1920's, definitely not the late 1700's. Some people think that cartoonist Tad Dorgan first came up with the phrase, as well as several others that didn't stick around including "the flea's eyebrows" and "canary's tusks."
Some other people think the phrase was used slightly earlier than the 1920's (but still not the 1700's!) by schoolgirls. Tad Dorgan just picked it up and made it popular.
There's not really a good explanation for how it started, unfortunately. It was part of a popular series of phrases in the 1920's about animals and body parts including he bee's knees, the snake's hips, the clam's garter, the eel's ankle, the elephant's instep, the tiger's spots, the leopard's stripes, the sardine's whiskers, and the pig's wings. Whoever first came up with cat's pajamas might have chosen the word "pajamas" because pajamas were new and cool in the 1920s, but basically, they were just going with the flow. Personally, I'm glad "cat's pajamas" stuck around instead of "elephant's instep."
I'm not sure where that first answerer got their information, but the word has been around since the 1920's, definitely not the late 1700's. Some people think that cartoonist Tad Dorgan first came up with the phrase, as well as several others that didn't stick around including "the flea's eyebrows" and "canary's tusks."
Some other people think the phrase was used slightly earlier than the 1920's (but still not the 1700's!) by schoolgirls. Tad Dorgan just picked it up and made it popular.
There's not really a good explanation for how it started, unfortunately. It was part of a popular series of phrases in the 1920's about animals and body parts including he bee's knees, the snake's hips, the clam's garter, the eel's ankle, the elephant's instep, the tiger's spots, the leopard's stripes, the sardine's whiskers, and the pig's wings. Whoever first came up with cat's pajamas might have chosen the word "pajamas" because pajamas were new and cool in the 1920s, but basically, they were just going with the flow. Personally, I'm glad "cat's pajamas" stuck around instead of "elephant's instep."
Source(s):
http://www.randomhouse.com/wotd/index.pp…
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/cat's_pyja…
http://www.guardian.co.uk/notesandquerie…
http://www.phrases.org.uk/bulletin_board…
http://www.wordwizard.com/ch_forum/topic…
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/cat's_pyja…
http://www.guardian.co.uk/notesandquerie…
http://www.phrases.org.uk/bulletin_board…
http://www.wordwizard.com/ch_forum/topic…
