“Sawbones” is a slang term for a surgeon, particularly one who performed amputations in battle before the advent of antibiotics. The term predates the American Civil War and is still used by some physicians today. The nickname comes from the fact that surgeons had to saw through bones to perform amputations. The term is also referenced in the first Star Trek series, where Dr. Leonard McCoy is affectionately called “Bones” by Captain Kirk.
A sawbones is a slang term used to describe a physician, and more specifically a surgeon, especially one who would serve in battle. The term is often related to the American Civil War, but actually predates it. Author Charles Dickens used it to refer to a physician in the 1837 novel Pickwick Papers, which suggests the common use of the expression at least 20 years before the American Civil War.
The path from surgeon to handjob is easy to follow. Before the advent of antibiotics, one of the main means of treating infected wounds, large or small, was amputation. The danger of gangrene developing from even the slightest cut often caused surgeons to cut off extremities or limbs to avoid blood poisoning. The wounds were then often cauterized (burned) with heated pokers.
To cut off a limb or extremity, a doctor literally had to saw through the bones. This means that the nickname is indeed quite macabre when considering its origin. Those who attribute the origin of the term to the American Civil War are at least partially right, since battlefield amputation was so common. There are descriptions of field hospitals with amputated limbs piled up enough to give a person with the strongest stomach nightmares.
While the term is sometimes considered derogatory, this is not always the case and physicians may call themselves by this name, particularly if they are surgeons. For example, heart surgeons must use a sternal saw in a procedure called a chest rupture. They literally have to saw through the breastbone to get to the heart for open heart repairs. Orthopedic surgeons, who work specifically with the skeletal system, may refer to themselves as saw, although the term is certainly not used as frequently as it once was.
While the term may not be used all that much nowadays, there is an interesting, still quite modern allusion to the term in the first Star Trek television series. Dr. Leonard McCoy is affectionately referred to as “Bones” by Captain Kirk, which is an obvious reference to sawbones. Never mind that, in the Star Trek universe, cutting people is generally considered a barbaric relic of the past and relatively useless.
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