Bone Up and Bone Idle Have Nothing to Do With Bones
A bone is a piece of the skeleton. Two familiar idioms using the word came in by other routes.
A bone is one of the hard pieces that make up a skeleton. Two idioms mislead: *bone up on* a subject, meaning to study it intensively, is American student slang from the 1860s, probably from Bohn's, a series of study translations; and *bone idle* uses *bone* simply as an intensifier, the way *bone dry* and *bone tired* do. An adult has 206 bones; a newborn has around 300, because many fuse during growth.
- A skeletal part. *A broken bone.*
- Bone up on — study hard. *Bone up on history.*
- Bone idle — very lazy. *Bone idle.*
- A bone to pick — a grievance. *A bone to pick.*
- Old English — *ban*. *The source.*
Word forms
| Form | Word | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Noun | bone | A bone. |
| Plural | bones | Bones. |
| Verb | bone | Boned. |
| Adjective | bony | Bony. |
| Old English | ban | A bone. |
- He broke a bone in his wrist.Anatomy.
- She boned up on the topic.Study.
- A newborn has about 300 bones.Fact.
Bone as an intensifier
- Bone dry — completely dry
- Bone idle — utterly lazy
- Bone tired — exhausted
- Bone china — named for the bone ash in the clay, a real ingredient
- Chilled to the bone — cold through and through
Old English *ban*, of Germanic origin, related to Dutch *been* and German *Bein*.
Where does bone up on come from?
American student slang from the 1860s, most likely from Bohn's, a well known series of study translations.
Do we lose bones as we grow?
In a sense. A newborn has around 300 bony pieces, many of which fuse together, leaving an adult with 206.