Skeleton

[shootingstar]

The Olympic Games are over now but there is a question that bothers me all the time: When hearing the word skeleton in connection with sports, what do the English and Americans associate with the word skeleton, regardless of or in addition to a type of sledge? Do they visualise a sort of framework = a structure that supports anything or, maybe, do they interpret skeleton for fun as a structure of bones that support the body of a person? What do they visualise (automatically) in addition to a specific sledge? (Maybe they don't visualise anything else but the sledge itself.)

 

[emsr2d2]

If I hear the word "skeleton" in the context of the Winter Olympics, I simply picture a person face down on the sled on the icy run. I don't picture the sled on its own. I guess what I picture is that specific sport. Something like THIS.
Outside of the Winter Olympics, I'd picture a standard human skeleton (ie all the bones in the right order in the shape of a person!)

 

[SoothingDave]

I'm going to think of the bones on a human body. The idea of a "skeleton" as the supporting framework of a building is probably not one that most people would think of. Certainly not first.