A few of us have made it a routine to get together and spend a few minutes over a cup of coffee. Though this routine itself has become monotonous the discussions that we have are sometimes very intriguing. A few days ago during one of these discussions a colleague of mine used the phrase ‘bone-dry’, obviously to refer to something that was ‘very’ dry. The usage of this phrase (bone-dry) is very common and most of us do know what it means, but I wondered how this term actually originated. What has bone to do with dryness and who actually came up with this relationship first?
I was hoping that one of us (among our coffee group) would have answers, but to my surprise all of us were equally ignorant. Later that day I checked the Wikipedia for any information on bone-dry, and again to my surprise wiki did not have any mention either. It does have a mention of ‘bonedry’ which apparently is a type of clay that is completely dried. So I did the next best thing, just googled it, and found some interesting thoughts (though none of them mention anything concrete about the origins).
According to one source, 'Bone dry' derives from an allusion to the dryness of bone after being left in the sun (Clearly someone out there tried to dry bones under the sun!). It goes on to say that the earliest known use of this team was in 1830 by the clergyman Robert Forby. Then there are those who think that ‘bone-dry’ actually is a variant of ‘bonedry” (the dry clay which forms porcelain). Once source points to the Bible, where a reference to bone dry is made, but here a lot is left to imagination (as is the case with most of the interpretations from religious texts).
To sum up, there is no clear answer. If someone else has anything interesting to add about ‘bone-dry’ please don’t hesitate do so.
