A border is a demarcation line which separates two geographic or political areas. A border may also refer to an edge or margin, often ornamental, such as a strip of flowers or bushes that grows along a house, garden or property line. Border may also act as a transitive verb, which takes an object, to describe providing an edge or boundary. As an instransitive verb, which takes no object, border describes something which is adjacent to another thing. Border may also mean on the brink of an extreme condition. Border comes from the mid-fourteenth century Old French word, bordure, which means seam, edge of a shield. Border was first used to describe boundaries between countries in the 1530s, when the word was used to name the area adjoining England and Scotland.


A boarder is a lodger, someone who lives in a residence of some sort where he receives regular meals in exchange for payment. A boarder may live in a home, dorm or other dwelling. A boarding school is one where students reside at the school in converted homes or dorms for the semester. Another use of the word boarder is to describe someone who gains entry to a boat or ship. Finally, a person who surfs, snowboards or skateboards may be referred to as a boarder, though skateboarders are usually called skaters. Boarder comes from the noun, board, which in the late fourteenth sense means table. In the 1520s boarder came to mean one who has food and lodging at the house of another.