Pylimitics

Make no bones about it; the expression make no bones about it comes from soup. Sort of. 

Saying “make no bones” about something, nowadays, generally means to talk about something clearly and openly. It’s most recently derived from its opposite: “to make bones,” which is an obsolete expression meaning “to have objections to or difficulty in.” That expression probably originated in the early 1500s, and in those days “to make bones” really meant “to find bones.” It was sometimes used in connection with food and drink, as in this quote from the 1516 poem The Tunnyng of Elynour Rummyng:

“Supped it up at once;
She founde therein no bones.”

The expression “make no bones” started to appear later that same century, although at first the phrase was “make no bones at” rather than “about,” as it’s used now. The “about” form appeared in the 1800s:

“I didn’t quite like to draw out my money so long as Pilkington held on; but I shall make no bones about it with this fellow.” (from Adrian Vidal by William Edward Norris, 1885)

As to where the phrase came from in the first place, it goes back to the 1400s, and had to do with “the occurrence of bones in soup…as an obstacle to its being easily swallowed.” 

By the way, the word “bone” itself is so old nobody is really sure where it originated. It’s Germanic, at least, and the earliest known reference is from the seventh century, in a tome called the Erfurt Glossary, which referred, for some reason, to “elephant’s bone.” 

There are at least a couple of other bony expressions in English, including “a bone to pick” and “a bone of contention.” Both of these are derived from how dogs behave with bones, and both date from the 1500s. Not to mention an almost-obsolete phrase meaning “to live to a ripe old age;” “to make old bones.” It was popular in the 1800s, and appeared, for example, in a serialization of the novel Verner’s Pride in the magazine Once a Week in 1863:

“Barring getting shot, or run over by a railway train, you’ll make old bones, you will.” Gee, what a pleasant thought…