Meaning & use
bourne
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Meanings
nouncountableliteraryold-fashioned
A small stream or brook.
Grammar: Countable: you can say 'a bourne' or 'the bournes of England'.
Patterns
- a bourne
- the bourne of something
The village takes its name from the bourne that runs through the valley.
We followed the bourne down to the old mill.
nouncountableliteraryold-fashioned
A boundary or limit, especially of life or a journey.
Grammar: Usually singular and literary, as in 'the bourne of life'.
Patterns
- the bourne of something
- from which no traveller returns
The poem speaks of death as the undiscovered bourne from which no traveler returns.
They reached the bourne of the known world and stopped.
Word forms
| plural | bournes |
|---|
Common combinations
- the bourne of life
- The old sermon described death as the bourne of life.
- a quiet bourne
- A quiet bourne wound through the meadow behind the church.
- cross the bourne
- In the legend, no one who crossed the bourne ever came back.
Synonyms and how they differ
Word family
- bourne noun
- The same word; no other common family members survive in modern English.
Commonly confused: bourne or born? bourne or borne?
bourne vs born
A homophone meaning 'brought into life' (I was born in May); 'bourne' is a stream or boundary.
bourne vs borne
A homophone, the past participle of 'bear' (the cost was borne by us); not a place or stream.
Practice
In the old poem, the river is called a 'bourne'. What does 'bourne' mean here?
Choose one answer.
'Bourne' in this literary use means a small stream or brook. 'Boundary stone' is tempting because 'bourne' can mean a limit, but the context of a river points to water, not a marker.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “bourne”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.