Gnaw Bone, Indiana

Unincorporated community in Indiana, United States

39°11′27″N 86°09′20″W / 39.19083°N 86.15556°W / 39.19083; -86.15556CountryUnited StatesStateIndianaCountyBrownTownship WashingtonElevation

^[2]

643 ft (196 m)Population

(2000)

• Totalc. 200^[1]Time zoneUTC-5 (Eastern (EST)) • Summer (DST)UTC-4 (EDT)ZIP codes

47448

Area code(s)812 & 930GNIS feature ID452046^[2]

Gnaw Bone is an unincorporated community in Washington Township, Brown County, in the U.S. state of Indiana.^[2] Gnaw Bone is situated on State Highway 46, between Nashville and Columbus. The small community contains three flea markets.^[3]

Origin of name

The origin of the name Gnaw Bone is obscure. One theory is that the town's name derives from that of the original French settlement in the area, Narbonne, named in turn for the southern French city of that name. To the ears of English settlers at the time, "Narbonne" sounded like and came to be known as "Gnaw Bone."^[4]^[5]^[6]

The name was in common use as early as 1879, as shown by newspaper articles in the Columbus (Indiana) Republic and the Cincinnati (Ohio) Enquirer, as well as numerous other newspapers articles up to the current year.^[7]

Gnaw Bone has frequently been noted on lists of unusual place names.^[8]

References

^ Huppke, Rex W. (February 13, 2000). "Chew on This There's a Town Called Gnaw Bone". The Los Angeles Times. Retrieved November 14, 2014.
^ ^a ^b ^c U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: Gnaw Bone, Indiana
^ "Brown County has Fleas". Our Brown County. August 2006. Archived from the original on August 16, 2006. Retrieved August 28, 2014.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
^ Ashley, Leonard. 1995. "Folk Etymology in the Place Names of the United States." In Eichler, Ernst et al. (eds.) Namenforschung: ein internationales Handbuch zur Onomastik (pp. 471–475). Berlin: de Gruyter, p. 472.
^ Rubino, Carl A. Rubino, & Cynthia W. Shelmerdine. 1983. Approaches to Homer. Austin: University of Texas Press, p. 76.
^ Huppke, Rex W. (February 13, 2000). "Chew on This There's a Town Called Gnaw Bone". The Los Angeles Times. Retrieved November 11, 2011.
^ "Search".
^ Parker, Quentin (2010). Welcome to Horneytown, North Carolina, Population: 15: An insider's guide to 201 of the world's weirdest and wildest places. Adams Media. pp. x. ISBN 9781440507397.^{[permanent dead link]}