A small, thin bone from a fish that can get stuck in your throat when eating fish, or a herringbone pattern used in design and construction.
Compound of 'fish' (Old English 'fisc') and 'bone' (Old English 'ban'). The term has been used since at least the 1500s, both literally for fish skeletons and metaphorically for the distinctive V-shaped weaving pattern.
The fishbone pattern appears everywhere from medieval architecture to modern parquet floors because the diagonal arrangement is incredibly strong — the V-shape naturally distributes weight better than straight lines, which is why nature put bones in fish this way too.
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