# Bark anything but your shin? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 3, 2004, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bark-anything-but-your-shin/267336 "2004-10-03T16:43:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![hawthorne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c89c15/32.png) [@hawthorne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hawthorne)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2004, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bark-anything-but-your-shin/267336/1 "2004-10-03T16:43:16Z")
This is an English usage poll. A couple of days ago I barked my shin. That is, I slipped and got a slight injury when my shin slid at right angles across a hard surface. Had I done this to my elbow I would have said I skinned or grazed it. Do you use the term “barked”, and if so, do you use it for things other than your shin? ---
**Author:** ![Ponder\_Stibbons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ponder_stibbons/32/343_2.png) [@Ponder\_Stibbons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponder_Stibbons)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2004, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bark-anything-but-your-shin/267336/2 "2004-10-03T17:00:45Z")
I live in Dallas, Texas and grew up in Oklahoma. I have never heard “bark” used as a verb for any meaning other than a dog making a vocal comment. ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2004, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bark-anything-but-your-shin/267336/3 "2004-10-03T18:14:20Z")
1. Dogs bark at people. 2. Woodcutters bark trees. If you don’t have the tools to cut it down, you cut the bark from around the trunk, and it will die and fall down on its own. 3. Joggers bark their shins. I suspect usage #3 is originally derived from usage #2. ---
**Author:** ![Suburban\_Plankton](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/suburban_plankton/32/219_2.png) [@Suburban\_Plankton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Suburban_Plankton)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2004, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bark-anything-but-your-shin/267336/4 "2004-10-03T18:36:43Z")
I have never heard “bark” used except in reference to dogs. Cutting the bark from around a tree is called “girdling” to me. ---
**Author:** ![Gaudere](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e495f1/32.png) [@Gaudere](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gaudere)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2004, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bark-anything-but-your-shin/267336/5 "2004-10-03T19:12:26Z")
According to the OED, mbh is likely correct. The first usage of “bark” to mean scrape is in 1850, where a writer speaks of barking his hand. Me, I only bark my shins or possibly my elbow, everything else is a scrape. ---
**Author:** ![iampunha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/74df32/32.png) [@iampunha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iampunha)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2004, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bark-anything-but-your-shin/267336/6 "2004-10-03T19:29:38Z")
Never heard of bark used as a verb to mean anything not in relation to dogs, AFAIK. Scrape/bang/etc. my shin. ---
**Author:** ![Kiwi\_Fruit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kiwi_fruit/32/12_2.png) [@Kiwi\_Fruit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kiwi_Fruit)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2004, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bark-anything-but-your-shin/267336/7 "2004-10-04T00:05:40Z")
A New Zealander here. I could bark my shin or bark my knuckles. KF ---
**Author:** ![Uncle\_Dragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecc23a/32.png) [@Uncle\_Dragon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uncle_Dragon)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2004, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bark-anything-but-your-shin/267336/8 "2004-10-04T02:35:38Z")
When I have yelled at someone, I say that I have barked at them. ---
**Author:** ![Kyla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/eada6e/32.png) [@Kyla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyla)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2004, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bark-anything-but-your-shin/267336/9 "2004-10-04T02:42:35Z")
Never heard the word bark refer to scraping a body part. ---
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2004, 5:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bark-anything-but-your-shin/267336/10 "2004-10-04T05:36:15Z")
My barking includes my ankles, too. “The Lord gave us shins so that we could locate furniture in the dark.” ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2004, 10:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bark-anything-but-your-shin/267336/11 "2004-10-04T10:46:10Z")
Never heard the term used before now. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2004, 10:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bark-anything-but-your-shin/267336/12 "2004-10-04T10:55:24Z")
I believe one could also bark one’s knee and possibly ankle. ---
**Author:** ![VunderBob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/839c29/32.png) [@VunderBob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VunderBob)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2004, 1:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bark-anything-but-your-shin/267336/13 "2004-10-04T13:15:27Z")
US Midwest usage is bark a shin, but skin knees, ankles, elbows, and about anything else. ---
**Author:** ![hawthorne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c89c15/32.png) [@hawthorne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hawthorne)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2004, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bark-anything-but-your-shin/267336/14 "2004-10-04T13:33:47Z")
> [@](#): > > _mbh_ > 2. Woodcutters bark trees. If you don’t have the tools to cut it down, you cut the bark from around the trunk, and it will die and fall down on its own. I’d call that _ringbarking_. The things you can bark are all non-fleshy, which makes sense. You couldn’t bark the verandah over the toyshop. The pattern of use is interesting in that it varies and is all over the place. My wife (also Australian, but unlike me, born here) had never heard of it (same look she gave me when I called an item of manchester a “counterpane”). ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2004, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bark-anything-but-your-shin/267336/15 "2004-10-04T16:59:41Z")
“Why you keek my dog - he no bark you.” ---
**Author:** ![FatBaldGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ecd19e/32.png) [@FatBaldGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FatBaldGuy)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2004, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bark-anything-but-your-shin/267336/16 "2004-10-04T20:47:12Z")
> [@mbh](#): > > 1. Woodcutters bark trees. Yes, but sometimes they bark up the _wrong_ trees. > [@hawthorne](#): > > (same look she gave me when I called an item of manchester a “counterpane”) OK, I’m totally baffled by this one. I’ve heard the word “counterpane” in an old poem by Robert Louis Stevenson, and never known what it meant, but what is an “item of manchester”? (Please have patience with us ignerunt Mericuns.) ---
**Author:** ![Hal\_Briston](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a9a28c/32.png) [@Hal\_Briston](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hal_Briston)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2004, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bark-anything-but-your-shin/267336/17 "2004-10-04T21:15:41Z")
I know that after a particularly long day on my feet, my dogs are certainly barking. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2004, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bark-anything-but-your-shin/267336/18 "2004-10-05T00:57:11Z")
I’ve heard of barking shins and knuckles. Barking ones shins makes the most sense when compared to ‘barking a tree’ ie removing the outer coat and getting right down to the wood. The shin is the area of the body most susceptible to skin loss exposing bare bone, as there is no musclle (and precious little other tissue) between skin and bone. I’ve seen trees barked showing that gleaming yellow-white damp wood underneath, and I’ve seen far too many shins barked showing bright periosteal tissue! I’ve heard it applied to knuckles, when bone is exposed. Wounds on the knees and ankles and elsewhere which exposed bare bones tended to be far more extensive than merely abrasion injuries removing skin. ---
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2004, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bark-anything-but-your-shin/267336/19 "2004-10-05T03:49:22Z")
I had already checked this thread three times, but I came back to see what **Qadgop the Mercotan** had to say. I was not disappointed, by the way. That’s a measure of the weight that **QtM** carries in these parts. Og, I wish I had that kind of clout. I’m just a glimmer in the firmament. A tip o’ the old fedora. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2004, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bark-anything-but-your-shin/267336/20 "2004-10-05T04:38:25Z")
I don’t use the term, but barking one’s shin is something I’ve heard. No other body parts, though. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bark-anything-but-your-shin/267336.md?page=2)