The etymologies of English blood and bone are obscure. Although their cognates are well represented in the Germanic family, both lack clear cognates in other Indo-European languages. Various explanations for their origins have been proposed, including that they may be non-Indo-European (e.g. Hawkins 1987). Blood and bone, and their cognates, share an initial /b/ with numerous body-related words (e.g. beard, breast, bosom) throughout Germanic. This initial /b/ constitutes a phonestheme. Phonesthemes – ‘recurring sound-meaning pairings that are not clearly contrastive morphemes’ (Bergen 2004: 290) – are present in many Germanic languages, but their role in lexicogenesis is little understood. I suggest that blood and bone were formed by blending the initial /b/ phonestheme with two pre-existing lexemes: Proto-Germanic *flōda- ‘something that flows’ and *staina- ‘stone’. Phonesthetic blending may be a fruitful avenue for future etymological research.

中文翻译：

---

语音美学和血液和骨骼的词源

英语的词源血和骨晦涩难懂。尽管他们的同源词在日耳曼语系中有很好的代表性，但在其他印欧语系中都缺乏明确的同源词。已经提出了对其起源的各种解释，包括它们可能不是印欧语系（例如 Hawkins 1987）。血和骨及其同源词，与许多与身体有关的词（例如胡须,胸部,怀) 贯穿日耳曼语。这个开头的 /b/ 构成一个音位主题。音素——“重复出现的音义配对，不是明显的对比语素”（Bergen 2004：290）——存在于许多日耳曼语中，但它们在词汇生成中的作用却鲜为人知。我建议血和骨由最初的 /b/ 音素主题与两个预先存在的词位混合而成：原始日耳曼语 *佛罗里达州- '流动的东西' 和 *斯泰纳- '石头'。语音融合可能是未来词源学研究的一条富有成效的途径。