bord

bord¹ bastard

Pronunciation

• Northern: [ˈburt]^[1]
• Balearic, Central, Northwestern: [ˈbort]^[1]
• Valencia: [ˈboɾt]^[1]

Forms

bord (feminine borda, masculine plural bords, feminine plural bordes)^[1] The medieval texts often write bort.^[2][3]

Etymology

The word for a bastard is inherited from Vulgar Latin burdus (“mule; hybrid of a horse and a she-ass”), a word already used in antiquity but kept out of the correct language.^[3][4][5][1] Its origin is foreign but uncertain; the GDLC and Bruguera suggest it may be Celtic.^[3][5][6]

The same word gave Old Occitan bort and Old French bourt, and Spanish borde was taken from Catalan.^[7] Coromines notes that no other literary language has kept it as strongly as Catalan, which preferred it to bastard, a borrowing from Occitan or French.^[8][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Coromines dates the word to the beginnings of the literary language, with a first record of 1204 quoted by the DCVB.^[3] The troubadour Cerverí de Girona used bort in a stanza that Eiximenis later copied.^[3]

Semantic evolution

In the Middle Ages the noun was used especially of the acknowledged sons of noble and royal houses, some of whom became powerful lords;^[2] Pere el Cerimoniós's chronicle speaks of “En Jaume d'Aragó, fill bort” of King James.^[8][2] Roig's Spill and the Tirant lo Blanc (both dated 1460 by Faraudo) use it as an insult and for those barred from inheriting a kingdom.^[2]

From the start the adjective also meant false or degenerate: Llull calls a hope borda, and a recipe book in the University Library of Valencia speaks of wild olive trees and wild cabbage.^[2][10] A Mallorcan ordinance of 1406 uses bords for young boys.^[2] Today the word is alive everywhere, of illegitimate or foundling children and of plants that are wild, ungrafted or barren, or that look like another species without its properties (cirerer bord for the azarole in Valencia).^[8][5] Its derivatives are old: bordegàs “lad” and borderia (Eiximenis) are of the 14th century, bordet “foundling” of 1563 and bordenc of 1653.^[6]

Timeline

• 1204 – first record, quoted by the DCVB.^[3]
• 13th century – Cerverí de Girona and Llull use the word.^[3][10]
• 14th century – bordegàs “lad” and Eiximenis's borderia.^[6]
• 1406 – bords “young boys” in an ordinance of Mallorca.^[2]
• 1460 – Roig's Spill and the Tirant lo Blanc use bort.^[2]
• 1563 – bordet “foundling”.^[6]

Meanings

Adjective

1. bastard, illegitimate, born of unmarried parents; also as a noun: Diuen que el comte tenia dos fills bords.^[5][11][1]
2. Born of unknown parents; a foundling.^[5][11]
3. Of a tree, wild, not grafted, or bearing poor fruit; of a plant, wild beside a cultivated kind of the same name.^[5][11][1]
4. Of a plant or mushroom, resembling another species without its useful properties;^[5][4] (figurative) false, not genuine.^[5][4]

Noun

1. (construction) Each of the iron bars or beam ends that support the projection of a balcony.^[5][4]

Word family

• bordegàs
• borderia
• bordet
• bordenc
• bordís
• bordissalla
• rebordonir
• embordonir

bord² side of a ship

Forms

bord m (plural bords)^[1]

Etymology

The word for the side of a ship is borrowed from Spanish bordo, which is from French bord (“edge, rim”), from *bord.^{[12][4][6][5][1]} The Spanish word is recorded in the nautical sense from 1492, and Italian bordo was taken from Spanish.^[13]

The French word is of West Germanic, Frankish origin; the Germanic word is the same as bord (“plank”) and borð, and Coromines thinks the nautical sense may owe something to these languages.^[13] Orel traces it to *ƀurđan (“board, plank”).^[14] Wiktionary calls the Catalan word a doublet of borda.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The word is first recorded in the dictionary of Esteve, Bellvitges and Juglà (1803), for the side of a vessel.^[12][6]

Semantic evolution

Coromines does not remember the Catalanised form bord before about 1920: older nautical vocabularies give only bordo.^[12] Pal·las (1927) has bord for the outer side of a ship, the ship itself and a tack against the wind.^[15] Fabra (1932) gives the upper edge and the side of a ship, the phrases a bord and de bord, and vaixell d'alt bord, a large ship.^[16] The derivatives abordar and abordatge are recorded from 1803.^[6]

Timeline

• 1492 – Spanish bordo in the nautical sense.^[13]
• 1803 – first recorded in the dictionary of Esteve, Bellvitges and Juglà, with abordar and abordatge.^[6][12]
• 1927 – Pal·las's dictionary has the Catalanised form bord.^[15]
• 1932 – Fabra gives a bord and de bord.^[16]

Meanings

Noun

1. (nautical) The upper edge of a ship's side, the gunwale.^[17][1]
2. (nautical) The side of a ship: el bord de babord i el d'estribord.^[17][11]
3. a bord: on board a ship, an aircraft or a train: Pugem a bord abans que fosquegi.^[17][11]
4. de bord: belonging to the ship or the aircraft (diari de bord).^[17][11]
5. (nautical) A short tack.^[17]

Word family

• borda
• abordar
• abordatge
• bordada
• bordatge