bonehouse

English

Etymology 1

From Old English bānhūs (“the body, the chest, breast”, literally “the bone-house”), equivalent to bone +‎ house.

Noun

bonehouse (plural bonehouses)

1. (poetic) A body.
   • 1998, Gary Gach, What Book!?: Buddha Poems from Beat to Hiphop:

     […] beyond whatever - a comfort to consider those bones - Or run my hand over elastic frail ribcage, the woman I love, her pulse of desire. What store of affection inside the bonehouse? Tilt of the chin, and how her denim skirt falls to her shoes.

   • 1998, Alvin A. Lee, Gold-Hall and Earth-Dragon:

     A human body is not a house, says our logical mind. But as soon as we say this, the kenning urges us to consider or puzzle over why, after all, a human body in some special, important way is a house, and why moreover it is a 'bonehouse.'

   • 2012, Zack Eswine, Sensing Jesus: Life and Ministry As a Human Being:

     The skylark is our souls, residing within our bodies (bonehouses).

   • 2012, David Crystal, The Story of English in 100 Words:

     What comes into your mind when you hear the word bonehouse? It sounds like a building ... But they used it to talk about something very different: the human body while still alive. It paints a wonderful picture.

2. (poetic) A corpse.
   • 1990, Peter Stitt, Frank Graziano, James Wright: The Heart of the Light:

     […] but the poet, having moved through a landscape that is defined by images of barrenness and desolation — trees "lorn of all delicious apple," an empty house given over to "dust that filmed the deadened air," "the bonehouse of a rabbit," […]

Etymology 2

From bone +‎ house.

Noun

bonehouse (plural bonehouses)

1. A building for holding the remains of the dead.

Synonyms

• ossuary