It seems like for just about the last year, it’s done nothing but rain around here — the ground is so saturated, that just a little bit of rain sends water across the road in low spots. But we’ve actually had a couple of dry days lately — and — not unexpectedly, weeds have grown like crazy. So today, I decided to pull some weeds… the ground was “bone dry!”
Now I think most of us know that when I say something is “bone dry” I mean that it’s very dry. I’ve heard, and used, that phrase just about all my life. Of course, I wondered where it came from, and like a lot of things, the fact is, that no really seems to know.
It’s pretty certain that bone dry came into being as a phrase when people came across the remains of a body — either animal or human having being left out in the sun. If you’ve ever run across animal bones out in the woods, you know they are very dry.
One theory about the phrase’s origin claims that bone-dry is actually a variant of ‘bone-dry,” the dry clay used to form porcelain. The Bible talks about dry bones in the Book of Ezekiel, describing a vision the prophet has about standing in a valley full of dry human bones. Then the bones connect themselves into human figures and become covered with flesh and skin.
But I think bone dry is one of those phrases that we (or someone) makes up to express something or help a listener paint a picture in their mind. We use phrases like white as a ghost, black as night, bone chilling, or blood red to help listeners better understand out points.
So dry as a bone is just one of those things that a lot of people use and most people, even if they haven’t heard it before, almost readily know what it means….
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