Etymograph

English

bone

Bone comes from Old English bān, from Proto-Germanic *bainą ‘bone’, from *bainaz ‘straight’.

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*bainaz1‘straight’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*bainą1‘bone, leg’reconstructed
  3. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*bain2‘bone’reconstructed
  4. Old Englishc. 450–1150bān1‘bone’
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500bon1‘bone’
  6. Englishearliest quotation c. 1599–1602bone1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English bone
  2. 2 Wiktionary, Old English ban
  3. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: c. 1599–1602, William Shakespeare, The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke: “No Trophee, Sword, nor Hatchment o're his bones.”.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*bainazWiktionary, English bone‘straight’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*bainąWiktionary, English bone‘bone, leg’reconstructed
  3. Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*bainWiktionary, Old English ban‘bone’reconstructed
  4. Old Englishc. 450–1150bānWiktionary, English bone‘bone’
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500bonWiktionary, English bone‘bone’
  6. Englishearliest quotation c. 1599–1602boneWiktionary, English bone. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: c. 1599–1602, William Shakespeare, The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke: “No Trophee, Sword, nor Hatchment o're his bones.”

The story

Related also to Old Norse beinn (‘straight, right, favourable, advantageous, convenient, friendly, fair, keen’) (whence Middle English bain, bayne, bayn, beyn (‘direct, prompt’), Scots bein, bien (‘in good condition, pleasant, well-to-do, cosy, well-stocked, pleasant, keen’)), Icelandic beinn (‘straight, direct, hospitable’), Norwegian bein (‘straight, direct, easy to deal with’).

Full etymology on Wiktionary

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *bʰeyh₂- ‘to hit, strike, beat’

business, busy, biz, 7 more

through Proto-Germanic *bainą

bain, 1 more

through Middle English bon

bane, 1 more

Another origin of bone

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*bʰerH-‘to pierce, make a hole’uncertain
  2. Vulgar Latinc. 100–700 CE*bornium‘one-eyed’reconstructed
  3. Frenchc. 1600–presentborgne‘one-eyed’
  4. Frenchc. 1600–presentbornoyer‘to look at with one eye, to sight’
  5. Englishtodaybone

Today it means

noun A composite material consisting largely of calcium phosphate and collagen and making up the skeleton of most vertebrates.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “bone”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entry for Old English ban. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.

Etymograph / Proto-Germanic *bainaz / bone

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