"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.
"fastened," mid-14c. in figurative sense of "compelled," earlier in fuller form bounden (c. 1300), past-participle adjective from bind (v.). Meaning "under obligation" is from late 15c.; the literal sense "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."
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 out of bounds, which originally referred to limits imposed on students at schools; the other senses generally have gone with boundary.
