Boneless comes from bone + -less. Bone descends from Old English bān ('bone'), from Proto-Germanic *bainą. The historical trail runs through bān in Old English and *bainą in Proto-Germanic. Morphologically, boneless is transparent: it draws on bone + -less. Used as an adjective, boneless now means "having no bones; also figuratively lacking firmness or courage", so the present definition can be read against the older forms and meanings. The same lexical family is also visible in derived forms such as bonelessly and bonelessness and related forms such as bone and bony. The modern word remains analyzable through its parts, which makes the semantic connection unusually direct.