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Dictionary

Words, grammatical forms and meanings linked to the ontology.

bonelessness en · NOUN

Etymology

Etymology tree English boneless Proto-Germanic *-inōną Proto-Indo-European *-dyé- Proto-Germanic *-atjaną Proto-Indo-European *-tus Proto-Germanic *-þuz Proto-Germanic *-assuz Proto-Germanic *-inassuz Proto-West Germanic *-nassī Old English -nes Middle English -nesse English -ness English bonelessness From boneless + -ness.

Meanings

  1. (uncountable) The state or quality of being boneless.
    • 1889, Pan [pseudonym of Oliver Herbrand Gordon Leigh], Dinnerology: Our Experiments in Diet, Chicago, New York and San Francisco: Belford, Clarke & Co., Chapter 3, p. 41, Our “fish” course would include salmon steaks, cod rissoles, oysters and other finny-cal morsels, and we prided ourselves on their bonelessness.
    • His face was as soft and round as a dumpling. There seemed to be no structure in it. no indication of a skull beneath the skin. ¶ This unpleasant effect might have argued an equally unpleasant temperament. Luckily this was not so. But it exemplified a parallel bonelessness of outlook. 1950, Mervyn Peake, chapter 11, in Gormenghast, London: Eyre & Spottiswoode:
    • The dancer wears a long, soft drapery, which is never lifted to her ankles. Agility and apparent bonelessness are her characteristics. 1907, Thomas Hayes, “Dances of the East”, in The English Illustrated Magazine, volume 36, page 104: