bourne en · NOUN · etymology 1
Pronunciation
- (General-American)
- /bɔːn/ (Received-Pronunciation)
- /boən/ non-rhotic
- /boɹn/ (General-American)
- [bo̞ɹn] (General-American)
- /boːɹn/ rhotic
Etymology
From Middle French borne, from Old French bodne, from Medieval Latin bodina, a word of unknown ultimate origin, but possibly from Proto-Indo-European *bʰudʰmḗn (“bottom, base”), see also Proto-Celtic *bundos.
Meanings
-
(archaic, countable) A boundary; a limit.
For though from out our bourne of Time and Place, The flood may bear me far, I hope to see my Pilot face to face When I have crossed the bar.
1889, Alfred Tennyson, Crossing the Bar:[T]he dread of ſomething after death, / The vndiſcouer'd country, from whoſe borne / No trauiler returnes, puzzels the will, […]
c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, The Tragicall Historie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke: […] (Second Quarto), London: […] I[ames] R[oberts] for N[icholas] L[ing] […], published 1604, →OCLC, [Act III, scene i], signatures G2, recto – G2, verso:[T]hough I did not stop in my advance, yet I went on slowly, like a man who should have passed a bourne unnoticed, and strayed into the country of the dead.
1879, Robert Louis Stevenson, “[Our Lady of the Snows.] Father Apollinaris.”, in Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes, 1st American edition, Boston, Mass.: Roberts Brothers, →OCLC, page 91:
-
(archaic, countable, uncountable) A goal or destination.
I passed through many beautiful and majestic scenes; but my eyes were fixed and unobserving. I could only think of the bourne of my travels, and the work which was to occupy me whilst they endured.
1816 June – 1817 April/May (date written), [Mary Shelley], chapter I, in Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus. […], volume III, London: […] [Macdonald and Son] for Lackington, Hughes, Harding, Mavor, & Jones, published 1 January 1818, →OCLC, page 12:
Forms
| Spelling | Features | Labels | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| bournes | Number=Plur | lexicographic |