bourne
A stream or brook in which water flows only seasonally; a small stream or brook.
Noun archaic, countable
- A boundary; a limit.
- [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,...
- [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.]...
- 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:
- 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...
Origin
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.
Forms
Noun Entry 2
- A stream or brook in which water flows only seasonally; a small stream or brook.
Origin
From Middle English bourne, from Old English burna. Doublet of burn.