▪ I. † bourd, n. Obs.
Forms: 4–5 burde, 4–7 bord(e, bourd(e, 5 bouerd, 5–6 bowrd(e, 5–7 boord(e, 7 boward.
[ME. bourde, a. OF. bourde, Pr. borda ‘lie, cheating, deception’, of unknown origin.
Diez's proposed identification of OF. bourde with behort ‘tournament, tilting’, is discarded; for ‘bourde goes back to a date before the contraction of behourt to bourt could have taken place, and originally there was no connexion of sense’ (P. Meyer). At a later time behourder was contracted to behourder, bourder, and thus brought into confusion with this word and its verb bourder: see bourd v.]
An idle tale, a jest, a joke; jesting, raillery, joking, merriment, fun; a merry tale.
| c 1340 Gaw. & Gr. Knt. 1212 Al laȝande þe lady lanced þo bourdez. 1387 Trevisa Higden Rolls Ser. IV. 143 He wolde torne hit to bourde and lawȝhynge. 1430 Lydg. Chron. Troy ii. xvi, All his speche ful of bouerdes was. c 1430 ― Min. Poems 57 To be forsworn they hold it but a bord. a 1450 Knt. de la Tour (1868) 111 The kingges doughter..called hym in bourde her sone. c 1520 King & Barker 110 in Hazl. E.P.P. 9 Owr kyng lowhe, and had god bord. 1548 Cranmer Catech. 25 b, I spake not these wourdes in ernest but in borde. 1593 Drayton Eclog. vii. 208 For all thy Jests, and all thy merrie Bourds. 1606 Holland Sueton. 63 Either in earnest or boord [vel serio vel joco]. |
b. In a bad sense: Mockery, bantering. (Probably the earlier sense, as in French.)
| 1320–30 Lai le Freine 9 Bourdes and ribaudy. 1340 Ayenb. 56 Þanne byeþ þe burdes and þe trufles uor entremes. 1483 Caxton G. de la Tour B vj b, Al was taken for a bourd and a mocquerye. a 1541 Wyatt in Tottel's Misc. (Arb.) 51 Nought moueth you my dedly mone, But stil you turne it into bordes. 1602 W. Fulbecke 1st Pt. Parall. 71 If a man..should strike an other or vse broad boward against him. |
c. Play, game.
| 1362 Langl. P. Pl. A. x. 197. 1530 Palsgr. 199/2 Bourde or game, jeu. |
▪ II. † bourd, v.1 Obs.
[a. OF. bourder, f. bourde: see prec.]
1. intr. To say things in jest or mockery; to jest, joke; to make fun, make game.
| 1303 R. Brunne Handl. Synne 8667 How a bonde man bourdede wyþ a knyȝt. 1375 Barbour Bruce viii. 383 A lord so sweet and debonar, So blith als and so veill bowrdand. a 1450 Knt. de la Tour (1868) 40 He herde hem clatre, laughe, iangle, and borde of highe. 1481 Caxton Reynard (Arb.) 27 Ye borde and iape with me, for what I seche I fynde not. a 1555 Bradford Wks. 38 We shall feel it is no bourding with him. a 1600 in Kelly Sc. Prov. (1721) 56 (Jam.) Bourd not wi' bawtie (lest he bite you). c 1674 Ray N.C. Wds. s.v., Bourd neither with me nor with my honour, Prov. Scot. 1703 D. Williamson Serm. bef. Gen. Assembly 59 It is not safe to bourd with God, Conscience and Death. a 1758 Ramsay Poems (1800) II. 175 (Jam.) Never gi'e Encouragement or bourd with sic as he. |
b. To play.
| c 1440 Promp. Parv. 44 Boordon, or pleyyn, ludo, jocor. c 1450 Merlin 31 Whiche..passeden thourgh the feild where childern were bourdinge. 1548 Udall, etc. Erasm. Par., Mark vi. 42 Euen when he bourdeth to, or maketh any game or pastyme. 1559 Mirr. Mag., Clifford vi, To part his necke, and with his head to bourd. |
2. trans. To make game of, mock, jest with.
| 1592 G. Harvey Pierce's Super. 194 No man could..bourd a wilfull friend more dryly. 1636 James Iter Lanc. 102 In a wan fainte palenesse bourding death. |
▪ III. † bourd, v.2 Obs.
Also 4–5 borde, 5 bordyn, boordon, -de, bouerd, 4–6 bourde.
[f. F. border, bourder, contr. from behorder to fence, tilt, f. behord, behort tilting lance, tilting, tourney; see Diez. Probably confounded with prec.]
intr. To joust, tilt; to engage in a sham fight.
| c 1450 Merlin vi. 100 And after mete..yede the barouns and the knyghtes to boorde in a feire pleyn. Ibid. ix. 133 After mete was the quyntayne reysed, and ther at bourded the yonge bachelers. |
▪ IV. bourd, bourde
obs. f. board n. and v.