"having little flesh on the bones, gaunt," 1590s (Shakespeare), from raw (adj.) + bone (n.).
Entries linking to raw-boned
raw adj.
Middle English raue, from Old English hreaw, hreow "uncooked," from Proto-Germanic *khrawaz (source also of Old Norse hrar, Danish raa, Old Saxon hra, Middle Dutch rau, Dutch rauw, Old High German hrawer, German roh), from PIE root *kreue- "raw flesh."
Of skin, "tender, sore, abraded," from late 14c.; of persons, "crude or rude from want of experience, unskilled, youthfully ignorant," from c. 1500; of weather, "damp and sharply chilly" recorded from 1540s. Also used in Middle English of unspun silk, unfulled cloth, untanned hides, etc. Related: Rawly; rawness.
Raw material "unmanufactured material, material for fabrication in its natural state" is from 1796; the notion is of "in a rudimentary condition, in the state of natural growth or formation." Of data, measurements, etc., "not yet processed or adjusted," 1904. In names of colors or pigments, "crude, not brought to perfect finish" (1886). Phrase in the raw "naked" (1921) is from the raw "exposed flesh," which is attested from 1823. Raw deal "harsh treatment" is attested by 1893. Raw bar "bar selling raw oysters" is by 1943.
bone n.
Middle English bon, from Old English ban "bone, tusk, hard animal tissue forming the substance of the skeleton; one of the parts which make up the skeleton," from Proto-Germanic *bainan (source also of Old Frisian and Old Saxon ben, Old Norse bein, Danish ben, German Bein). Absent in Gothic, with no cognates outside Germanic (the common PIE root is *ost-); the Norse, Dutch, and German cognates also mean "shank of the leg," and this is the main meaning in Modern German, but English seems never to have had this sense.
To work (one's) fingers to the bone is from 1809. To have a bone to pick (1560s) is an image of a dog struggling to crack or gnaw a bone (to pick a bone "strip a bone by picking or gnawing" is attested from late 15c.); to be a bone of contention (1560s) is of two dogs fighting over a bone; the images seem to have become somewhat merged. Also compare bones.
Bone-china, which is mixed with bone-dust, is so called by 1854. Bone-shaker (1874) was an old name for the early type of bicycle, before rubber tires.