different between zoneless vs boneless

English

Etymology

zone +? -less

Adjective

zoneless (not comparable)

1. Without zones; unzoned.
   • 1983, Robert Pollock, Soccer for Juniors, New York: Scribner, “Tactics,” p. 109,^[1]

     In this style of defense he is the one zoneless player, being able to cross into either of the zones as he is needed.

   • 1988, Aniko Varpalotai, “Ringette: The Sport for Girls,” Orbit, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, Volume 19, No. 3, October 1988, p. 10,^[2]

     […] ringette players are agitating for zoneless play which would make the game faster and more demanding.

2. (literary, archaic) Without a belt or girdle.
   • 1749, William Mason, Isis: An Elegy, London: R. Dodsley, p. 7,^[3]

     Clos’d was her eye, and from her heaving breast

     In careless folds loose flow’d her zoneless vest;

   • 1785, William Cowper, The Task, London: J. Johnson, Book 3, p. 94,^[4]

     Thou art not known where pleasure is adored,

     That reeling goddess with the zoneless waist

     And wand’ring eyes, still leaning on the arm

     Of novelty, her fickle frail support;

3. (biology) Lacking bands or rings (particularly with reference to fungi).

English

Etymology

From Middle English bonles, banles, from Old English b?nl?as (“boneless”), from Proto-Germanic *bainalausaz, equivalent to bone +? -less. Cognate with Scots baneless (“boneless”), Dutch beenloos (“boneless; legless”), German beinlos (“legless”), Swedish benlös (“boneless”), Icelandic beinlaus (“boneless”).

Adjective

boneless (comparative more boneless, superlative most boneless)

1. Without bones, especially as pertaining to meat or poultry prepared for eating.
2. (chiefly Britain, figuratively) Lacking strength, courage, or resolve; spineless.
   • 1931, Winston Churchill, House of Commons, 13 May:

     I remember, when I was a child, being taken to the celebrated Barnum's circus, which contained an exhibition of freaks and monstrosities, but the exhibit [...] which I most desired to see was the one described as "The Boneless Wonder." My parents judged that the spectacle would be too revolting and demoralizing for my youthful eyes, and I have waited fifty years to see the boneless wonder sitting on the Treasury Bench.

   • 2006, Graham Searjeant, "Loyalty pays off for M&S shareholders", The Times of London, 11 November:

     Had the Green consortium made a straight bid, boneless fund managers would easily have outvoted private investors.

Derived terms

• bonelessness

Translations

References

• Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., 1989.

Anagrams

• noblesse