What is the origin of the word “board” (Bone-Idle)?
Phrases. In its glossary The Vocabulary Of East Anglia, 1830, Robert Forby quoted Robert Forby, commenting that the entry falls short of mentioning the actual wording “bone”? Bone-lazy,
bone-sore, bone-tired, adj. So lazy, sore, or tired that the laziness, the soreness, or the fatigue, seem to have penetrated the very bones.
I would use lazy bones at two different places: 1593 G. Harvey Pierces Supererogation
185 Was.legierdemane a sloweworme; or Viuacitie a lasiebones.
1600 N. Breton Pasquils Mad-cap Go tell the labourers, that the lazie bones That will not worke, must seek the beggar’s gaines.
With it being in the OED and the first uses of ‘bone idle’ are attributed to Thomas Carlyle &
Rudyard Kipling. (1904) I. 8 For the last three weeks I have been following your words bone idle.
R. Kipling Light that Failed vi 1761 R. Kipling light that Failed vi. Is 97 Bone-idle is he? Will you be careless while touching your temper?
What makes brain cells lazy or idle to produce bone? What are the muscles at the center of our body and why are they used? How are bones moved by muscles?
Is the origin due to the concept of any depth of idleness, that there is nothing deeper in limb than a bone?
What is the meaning of an idiom?
Note: In my answer, “bone idle” is mentioned… No explanations.
When one goes to define bone idle, the words are: all through to the bone.
Bone idle : (old-fashioned, British English, informal)
very lazy
- Word Origin: early 19th cent. Idle idling through to bone.
In A Glossary of Words Pertaining to the Dialect of Mid-Yorshire and Holderness, Issues 1-2 by C. Clough Robinson, they also suggest a possible origin from born idle :
Bone-idle, E. and N., adj. I am very lazy. The origins of this word bone is unclear, whether it means idle only to the bones or born idle ; in the E. it would appear to refer to the former, as they have a saying ” He is idle tiv his varray backbeean “, while in the Noth it is often used in the latter sense, i.e. my bones are idle. Constitutionally idle from birth, in the same way as it is said that Cap. 14a is passed without compensation, if no penalty? After reading this wikiHow, I learned that Thomas Cook was a born sailor. Robert Burns was a born poet.
An early citation about bone-idle is from ” Fair Rosamond, or, The days of King Henry II : an historical romance ” by Thomas Miller, 1839:
Marry i thou mayest work; — all these bone-idle fellows find thee out. I think of their tithes and their Orchards, and their cattle, and their fish-ponds, and the money they have paid for masses of food, but I should not matter it so much, an’ they needed it ; but
when I think of their tulips, and their orchards, and their cattle, and their fish-ponds, and the money they have paid out for masses.?
