Etymology
Advertisement
bound (v.2)

"to leap, spring upward, jump," 1590s, from French bondir "to rebound, resound, echo," from Old French bondir "to leap, jump, rebound;" originally "make a noise, sound (a horn), beat (a drum)," 13c., ultimately "to echo back," from Vulgar Latin *bombitire "to buzz, hum" (see bomb (n.)), perhaps on model of Old French tentir, from Vulgar Latin *tinnitire.

Related entries & more 
Advertisement
bound (adj.1)

"fastened;" mid-14c. in a figurative sense of "compelled," earlier in the fuller form bounden (c. 1300), past-participle adjective from bind (v.). The meaning "under obligation" is from late 15c.; the literal sense of "made fast by tying (with fetters, chains, etc.)" is by 1550s.

In philology, designating a grammatical element which occurs only in combination with others (opposed to free), from 1926. Smyth has man-bound (1867), of a ship, "detained in port for want of a proper complement of men."

Related entries & more 
bound (adj.2)

c. 1200, boun, "ready to go;" hence "going or intending to go" (c. 1400), from Old Norse buinn past participle of bua "to prepare," also "to dwell, to live," from Proto-Germanic *bowan (source also of Old High German buan "to dwell," Old Danish both "dwelling, stall"), from PIE root *bheue- "to be, exist, grow." The final -d is presumably through association with bound (adj.1).

Related entries & more 
bound (n.1)

c. 1300, "boundary marker," from Anglo-Latin bunda, from Old French bonde "limit, boundary, boundary stone" (12c., Modern French borne), a variant of bodne, from Medieval Latin bodina, which is perhaps from Gaulish.

It is attested from mid-14c. as "an external limit, that which limits or circumscribes;" figuratively, of feelings, etc., from late 14c. From late 14c. as "limits of an estate or territory." Now chiefly in the phrase out of bounds, which originally referred to limits imposed on students at schools (by 1751); the other senses generally have gone with boundary.

Related entries & more 
bound (v.1)

late 14c., "to form the boundary of," also "to set the boundaries of, confine within limits;" late 15c., "to be a boundary of, abut, adjoin," from bound (n.1). Related: Bounded; bounding.

Related entries & more 
Advertisement
bound (n.2)

"a leap onward or upward, a springing," 1550s, from bound (v.2).

Related entries & more 
north-bound (adj.)

also northbound, "travelling northward," by 1870, from north + bound (adj.2).

Related entries & more 
iron-bound (adj.)

late 14c., from iron (n.) + bound (adj.1). Figurative use from 1807.

Related entries & more 
ice-bound (adj.)

"obstructed by ice; frozen in; surrounded or hemmed in by ice, so as to prevent progress or approach," 1650s, from ice (n.) + bound (adj.1).

Related entries & more 
earth-bound (adj.)

c. 1600, "firmly fixed in or on the earth," from earth (n.) + bound (adj.). Figurative sense "bound by earthly ties or interests" is from 1869.

Related entries & more