mid-13c., "to end at, to border on, touch at the end," from Old French aboter, abuter "join end to end, touch with an end" (13c.), and abouter "join end to end," from à "to" (see ad-) + boter, bouter "to strike, push," from a Germanic source (ultimately from PIE root *bhau- "to strike"). Compare butt (v.). Related: Abutted; abutting.

1580s, the tense of Greek verbs that most closely corresponds to the simple past in English, from Greek aoristos (khronos) "indefinite (tense)," from aoristos "without boundaries, undefined, indefinite," from assimilated form of a- "not" (see a- (3)) + horistos "limited, defined," verbal adjective from horizein "to limit, define," from horos "boundary, limit, border" (see horizon). Related: Aoristic.

Scandinavian country from Dane, the people's name, + Danish mark "border" (see mark (n.1)). The modern form is attested from late 14c. (from earlier Denemarke, c. 1200, from Old English Dene-mearce), but originally it meant western Scandinavia generally, "the lands of the Danes and Northmen." As an adjective, Middle English had Dene-marchish.

late 15c. as a nickname for Alexander; it is a diminutive or familiar variant of the nickname Saunder, which is preserved in surnames, as in Clerk Saunders of the old Border ballad. As the typical name for a Scotsman (especially a Lowlander) from 1785; in that use also punning on the hair-color sense of sandy (adj.). Also Sawney.

breed of dog, a kind of sheep-dog much esteemed in Scotland, 1650s, of uncertain origin. Possibly from dialectal coaly "coal-black," the color of some breeds (compare colley, "sheep with black face and legs," attested from 1793; Middle English colfox, "coal-fox," a variety of fox with tail and both ears tipped with black; and colley, Somerset dialectal name for "blackbird"). Or from Scandinavian proper name Colle, which is known to have been applied to dogs in Middle English ("Ran Colle our dogge, and Talbot, and Gerlond" [Chaucer, "Nun's Priest's Tale"]). Century Dictionary cites Gaelic cuilean, cuilein "a whelp, puppy, cub." Or perhaps it is a convergence of them. Border-collie (by 1894) was so called from being bred in the border region between Scotland and England.

late 14c., "the act of replacing or filling up the mortar in the exterior faces of joints in stone- or brickwork," verbal noun from point (v.). Also from late 14c. as "pricking;" the sense of "process of attaching pieces of thread lace as a fringe or border" is from mid-15c. Meaning "action of indicating or directing with the finger, etc." is from 1550s.

c. 1400, "boundary, frontier," from Old French limite "a boundary," from Latin limitem (nominative limes) "a boundary, limit, border, embankment between fields," which is probably related to limen "threshold," and possibly from the base of limus "transverse, oblique," which is of uncertain origin. Originally of territory; general sense from early 15c. Colloquial sense of "the very extreme, the greatest degree imaginable" is from 1904.

"sculptured horizontal band in architecture," 1560s, from French frise, originally "a ruff," from Medieval Latin frisium "embroidered border," variant of frigium, which is probably from Latin Phrygium "Phrygian; Phrygian work," from Phrygia, the ancient country in Asia Minor known for its embroidery (Latin also had Phrygiae vestes "ornate garments"). Meaning "decorative band along the top of a wall" was in Old French.

1751, "decorative design," originally a design in the form of vine tendrils around the borders of a book page, especially a picture page, from French vignette, from Old French diminutive of vigne "vineyard" (see vine). Sense transferred from the border to the picture itself, then (1853) to a type of small photographic portrait with blurred edges very popular mid-19c. Meaning "literary sketch" is first recorded 1880, probably from the photographic sense.

also selvege, early 15c., selfegge, "edge of web or cloth so finished as to prevent raveling," apparently literally "its own edge," a corruption of self + edge (n.); on analogy of Middle Flemish selvegge. Compare also Low German sulfegge (which might have influenced the English word); Dutch zelfkant, from kant "border;" Middle High German selbende, German Selbend, literally "self-end."