bourne

CEFRC2

/bɔːn/

noun

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    noun

    A destination or goal; a boundary in older usage.

  2. 02

    noun

    Extra detail

    A goal or destination.

Examples

  • The family's ancestral bourne was in Scotland.

  • The river flowed gently to its bourne.

At a glance

Sits at C2 on the CEFR scale

Senses
4
Parts of speech
1
Citations
4

Also pronounced

  • /boɹn/

Deep Dive

noun

Extra meanings

  1. A stream or brook in which water flows only seasonally; a small stream or brook.

  2. A boundary; a limit.

More examples

In context

  • The traveler reached his final bourne after a long journey.

  • [T]he dread of ſomething after death, / The vndiſcouer'd country, from whoſe borne / No trauiler returnes, puzzels the will, […]

  • [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.

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

In Shakespeare's play, Hamlet ponders the undiscovered blank from which no traveler returns.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

noun

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.