funny bonen.
/ˈfʌnɪ bəʊn/, U.S. /ˈfəni ˌboʊn/ 1. A place behind the bony point of the elbow at which a knock or blow results in a sensation of numbness or tingling pain in the forearm and hand.The sensation results from compression of the ulnar nerve, which lies just beneath the skin at this place.In early use probably partly punning on the similarity of the name for the bone in the upper arm, the humerus, and the word humorous (cf. quot. 1827).In the United States also sometimes known as the crazy bone: see crazy bone n. at crazy adj. Compounds 2.
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > the body > structural parts > bone or bones > bones of arm or leg > bones of arm > [noun] > bone of elbow
olecranon1578
rotula1766
funny bone1826
singing-bone1854
1826 Universal Songster III. 26/1 Droll! what d'ye mean?—I wish you'd keep your funny-bone out of my ribs.
1827 Morning Post 31 Dec. ‘What does the Surgeon mean by the os humorous?’ inquired a modern thirster after knowledge; ‘I doesn't know, Jack.., unless he means the funny bone.’
1867 Pall Mall Gaz. 30 Jan. 4 It is like rapping a man..over the funny-bone.
1881 R. D. Blackmore Christowell xv, in Good Words 22 225/2 Even the fiddlers three..worked their funny bones more gently.
1926 Jrnl. Philos. Stud. 1 83 The pain in your funny bone is localized.
1972 Lethbridge (Alberta) Herald 26 Jan. 42/4 Only a very funny type of person could have a funny funny bone. To the rest of us, it..hurts like mad if we happen to bash it, even lightly.
2007 P. Schmatz Circle Truth 40 He spun around, whamming his funny bone on the edge of his locker door and dropping his books... The jangling ran up and down his arm and out into his fingers.
2. figurative. This part of the body regarded as representing a person's sense of humour; (hence more simply) a sense of humour. Frequently in to tickle a person's funny bone: to appeal to a person's sense of humour.
ΚΠ
1830 H. Smith Midsummer Medley II. 80 I leave, by an especial clause, To friend Tom Hood my funny bone, Though much inferior to his own.
1862 Birmingham Daily Post 22 Nov. 3/6 A man without a merry thought Can hardly have a funny-bone.
1887 Delta (Pa.) Herald 7 Jan. He will certainly tickle your funny bone with his side splitting comicalities.
1902 Daily Chron. 12 June 3/3 Two principal figures and a few carefully careless scratches—that is all Mr. Raven-Hill uses in the pointing of his joke, but he hits the universal funny-bone with his pencil.
1957 T. R. Cates Drainpipe Diary 63 These stealthy and torrid little love scenes should have tickled my funny-bone. Instead it made me infinitely sad.
1998 Birmingham Evening Mail (Nexis) 6 Feb. 59 If he has tickled your funny bone previously, you will find much to laugh at here.
2009 P. Lopate Notes on Sontag 142 She let fly a cruel, contemptuous chortle that did suggest she had a funny-bone.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2017; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
<
n.1826