That's not how McCoy got his nickname!

[Rii]

Oh, for Chrissakes. He talks about his divorce in the movie, and Kirk calls him that nickname at the end.
How the hell hard is this to comprehend? Stop overthinking this!

If we're limited to what's onscreen then Kirk suddenly decided to call McCoy "Bones" some three years after McCoy used the word in describing his divorce. Stop underthinking this!

 

[RoJoHen]

Honestly, it never even crossed my mind that Kirk gave him the nickname at all.

I call a lot of people by nicknames that I didn't give them.

It could have easily been a name he acquired in Medical School. In fact, I think that makes a lot more sense.

 

[Awesome Possum]

No, Trekkies don't over-react to minor pieces of minutiae. Not, not at all. Where did you get the idea that such a stereotype was accurate?

No clue.

No clue at all.

 

[Dale]

It wasn't just a single, off-the-cuff remark... it was how they met and the first thing of any substance Kirk knew about him. And then they shared a drink. Of course its the genesis of the nickname.

IMHO.

 

[Amaris]

It wasn't just a single, off-the-cuff remark... it was how they met and the first thing of any substance Kirk knew about him. And then they ahred a drink. Of course its the genesis of the nickname.

IMHO.

Agreed. To me it makes perfect sense in that regard.


J.

 

[KiraDax]

Maybe it's a nice little in-joke between them. Everyone else assumes McCoy is 'Bones' because of the stupid, cliche 'sawbones' routine, he and Kirk know where the moniker really originated and get to have a good laugh or two over it...and a drink, of course.

 

[Ryan Thomas Riddle]

Funny thing is that "sawbones" isn't even canon. It was offered as an off-handed speculation on the part of Roddenberry and others. Nothing was ever said one way or the other about it.

As for the divorce bit, I loved it. I think it's much better, much more in character, and better written than some contrived explanation of an outdated bit of military parlance.

 

[Brent]

Oh, for Chrissakes. He talks about his divorce in the movie, and Kirk calls him that nickname at the end.
How the hell hard is this to comprehend? Stop overthinking this!

If we're limited to what's onscreen then Kirk suddenly decided to call McCoy "Bones" some three years after McCoy used the word in describing his divorce. Stop underthinking this!

Still, i'm not going to go around making stuff up. They made a point to show us the whole "Bones" thing when they first met, that was on purpose. I've gotta stick with what I see onscreen.

 

[Alrik]

No, Trekkies don't over-react to minor pieces of minutiae. Not, not at all. Where did you get the idea that such a stereotype was accurate?

No clue.

No clue at all.

WINNER!!!

It might be time for some to back away from the nuTrek ledge.

 

[Rii]

You don't have to like it, and you can scream all day that he actually derived the name from an archaic nickname for a surgeon, but the fact is this is how McCoy got his nickname: "She took the whole damn planet in the divorce, and all she left me were my bones."

That's an interesting interpretation of the word "fact".

Indeed. However, what is more likely in this particular situation?


"McCoy, I remember when you told me that in your divorce, your wife left you nothing but your bones, so I'm going to start calling you Bones as a measure of empathy and affection."

- or -

"McCoy, I'm a big fan of ancient military vernacular, and I think you should be given the nickname of Sawbones, which I will shorten to "Bones", because military surgeons of the day, (that being several decades before the Civil War of the United States), used that name."

J.

I don't know much about ancient military vernacular or the US Civil War, but I've certainly heard the term "sawbones" before, and not in the context of Star Trek. Certainly neither of the dictionaries listed by Dictionary.com as carrying carrying the word have labelled it as archaic.

I find it very plausible that a surgeon using a nickname associated with surgeons would've been given that nickname because he was a surgeon. I don't find it all plausible that a surgeon using a nickname associated with surgeons would've been given that nickname because he used the word in an anecdote once. Of course it's not exactly an either/or issue, there could've been multiple contributing influences.

Venturing dangerously into interior US affairs here, but isn't McCoy presented as an old-school "southerner"? Wouldn't the use of an outdated nickname be consistent with such a characterisation?

 

[Danoz]

I actually read that more as a pun for viewers than the origin of his nickname.

 

[Kelso]

I have a buddy named Scott (a white guy) who once went to do some work at an old redneck woman's house. She wouldn't open the door for him, instead she called the office and told them that she wouldn't let "some dirty mexican" in her house. That was 7 years ago... we've called him "Chico" ever since.

Nicknames often have stupid origins.

 

[Amaris]

That's an interesting interpretation of the word "fact".

Indeed. However, what is more likely in this particular situation?


"McCoy, I remember when you told me that in your divorce, your wife left you nothing but your bones, so I'm going to start calling you Bones as a measure of empathy and affection."

- or -

"McCoy, I'm a big fan of ancient military vernacular, and I think you should be given the nickname of Sawbones, which I will shorten to "Bones", because military surgeons of the day, (that being several decades before the Civil War of the United States), used that name."

J.

I don't know much about ancient military vernacular or the US Civil War, but I've certainly heard the term "sawbones" before, and not in the context of Star Trek. Certainly neither of the dictionaries listed by Dictionary.com as carrying carrying "sawbones" have labelled it as archaic.

I find it very plausible that a surgeon using a nickname associated with surgeons would've been given that nickname because he was a surgeon. I don't find it all plausible that a surgeon using a nickname associated with surgeons would've been given that nickname because he used the word in an anecdote once. Of course it's not exactly an either/or issue, there could've been multiple contributing influences.

Venturing dangerously into interior US affairs here, but isn't McCoy presented as an old-school "southerner"? Wouldn't the use of an outdated nickname be consistent with such a characterisation?

Okay, now how will it look in 200 years?

J.

 

[Dayton Ward]

I think the Onion has fodder for a new Trekkie bit.

 

[Peter the Younger]

I have a buddy named Scott (a white guy) who once went to do some work at an old redneck woman's house. She wouldn't open the door for him, instead she called the office and told them that she wouldn't let "some dirty mexican" in her house. That was 7 years ago... we've called him "Chico" ever since.

Nicknames often have stupid origins.

This.

I've had about a half dozen nicknames in my life, and they all originated from stupid jokes, minor events, and casual comments that stuck.

 

[ChristopherPike]

Interesting then, that Original Series Kirk is aware of the usage "Sawbones" enough to make it part of his Chicago Gangster routine during A Piece of the Action...

I always thought McCoy was the old fashioned Country Doctor. A throwback, whose hobby would be anything archaic - like Cochrane into Rock n' Roll or Tom Paris into Saturday morning serials. The good Doctor even had a museum display of a surgeon's knives on the wall during Space Seed. The name would fit that. Typically when you go through a divorce, the saying is "She left me and even took the shirt from my back" or "Without a cent to my name".

 

[RoJoHen]

Maybe Bones just uses the word "bones" a lot more than normal people, and this scene was the start of it. Who knows? Who cares? I sure don't.

 

[Rii]

Indeed. However, what is more likely in this particular situation?


"McCoy, I remember when you told me that in your divorce, your wife left you nothing but your bones, so I'm going to start calling you Bones as a measure of empathy and affection."

- or -

"McCoy, I'm a big fan of ancient military vernacular, and I think you should be given the nickname of Sawbones, which I will shorten to "Bones", because military surgeons of the day, (that being several decades before the Civil War of the United States), used that name."

J.

I don't know much about ancient military vernacular or the US Civil War, but I've certainly heard the term "sawbones" before, and not in the context of Star Trek. Certainly neither of the dictionaries listed by Dictionary.com as carrying carrying "sawbones" have labelled it as archaic.

I find it very plausible that a surgeon using a nickname associated with surgeons would've been given that nickname because he was a surgeon. I don't find it all plausible that a surgeon using a nickname associated with surgeons would've been given that nickname because he used the word in an anecdote once. Of course it's not exactly an either/or issue, there could've been multiple contributing influences.

Venturing dangerously into interior US affairs here, but isn't McCoy presented as an old-school "southerner"? Wouldn't the use of an outdated nickname be consistent with such a characterisation?

Okay, now how will it look in 200 years?

J.

No clue, however the rest of the language employed by the characters appears remarkably consistent with contemporary english.

Also, government (and particularly, military) institutions have a long history of revelling in tradition for its own sake. If there's one place where the word might survive for several hundred years, it's Starfleet.

 

[Ryan Thomas Riddle]

[

I don't know much about ancient military vernacular or the US Civil War, but I've certainly heard the term "sawbones" before, and not in the context of Star Trek.

As an aficionado of Nelson's Royal Navy, I've heard the term associated with naval parlance since during the Age of Sail, a ship's surgeon would often amputate the gangrene limbs of injured sailors.

In terms of Trek, I've read it mention as an offhanded explanation for Bones nickname in various magazine interviews.

 

[Greg Cox]

Nobody is denying, of course, that "Bones" came from "sawbones" on the original series.

But apparently we have a new, less dated explanation . . . .

(Honestly, I associate "sawbones" with old westerns.)