牛逼（niúbī)?（Like the bees knees in English) is one of the more amusing expressions Jack learn in online Chinese in China. He is curious to know more about this term. He has two questions. First, how did it originally get its meaning in Chinese? Second, what’s the exact meaning of this word?

Now let’s explain them one by one.

牛逼（niúbī) is equal to fucking awesome in English. And 牛（niú）in slang means awesome. The usage is pretty same as in English.

Here are two examples that I collected from the Chinese dialogue:

A：我能一连吃10个汉堡. （wǒ nénɡ yìlián chī 10 ɡè hànbǎo.）

  I can eat 10 burgers in a row.

B：牛啊！（niúā！）

   Awesome!

A: 你好牛，这么难得题目你也会做！（nǐ hǎoniú，zhème nán dé tímù nǐ yěhuìzuò！）

   You are so awesome. You can even do such difficult questions!

B: 谢谢。（xièxiè）

   Thanks.

Additionally, regarding to 牛X （niúX）or 牛叉（niúchā）. It is common in online forums/tweets/blogs, but it is rare in conversations. Reason is same as people write LOL online very often but seldom say L-O-L in conversations.

If you want to be polite, say 牛（niú）instead of 牛X（niúchā） or 牛叉（niúchā）。

To supplement, there are several slang words that have "逼(bī)".

傻逼（shǎbī）: negative word. A stupid guy (especially when he has done something very stupid) (这个傻逼把彩票扔了！)

装逼（zhuānɡbī）: negative word. A verb means improperly showing himself in a higher level (for examples, of knowledge or cultivation) than others. A post on the internet refers it to "campy". Think that you and your other friends are playing happily in a party, but he takes out a book written by Hegel and starts to read in the corner. Or you and your friend are talking about a comedic soup opera with a background in Roman times but he breaks in and says that he won't watch it because the opera is not in Latin at all, let alone the numerous details that fail to reflect the actual history. Some also thinks that adding too many English words/phases in a Chinese sentence is 装逼（zhuānɡbī） (like "不多写点（bùduōxiě diǎn ）application的话，这个project的funding就拿不下来（jiù nábú xiàlái."). 装逼 can be separated in a sentence (like "你装什么逼呢！（nǐ zhuānɡ shénme bīne ").

二逼(èrbī): negative word.A idiotic guy, subtly different from 傻逼（shǎbī）. An 二逼 behaves improperly or sillily. Also, 二 can be a adjective with the same meaning in 二逼. (你看你，二了吧！) (nǐkànnǐ，èrlebɑ！)