"the fixing or marking of limits or boundaries," 1816, from French délimitation (18c.), noun of action from délimiter (see delimit).
1960, in computing, "sequence of one or more characters used to specify the beginning or end of separate, independent regions in text or other data streams," agent noun from delimit.
"action or right of seizure of persons or of property of subjects of a foreign ruler or state by way of reprisal for injuries committed by such persons," early 15c., in letters of marque "official permission to capture enemy merchant ships," from Anglo-French mark (mid-14c.), via Old French from Old Provençal marca "reprisal," from marcar "seize as a pledge, mark," probably from a Germanic source (compare Old High German marchon "delimit, mark;" see mark (n.1)), but the sense evolution is difficult.
1630s, "to mark out, distinguish," a sense now obsolete, modeled on French remarquer "to mark, note, heed," formed in French from re-, here perhaps an intensive prefix (see re-), + marquer "to mark," which probably is from Frankish or another Germanic source such as Old High German marchon "to delimit" (see mark (n.1)).
Meaning "take notice of, mark out in the mind" is from 1670s; that of "make a comment, express, as a thought that has occurred to the speaker or writer" is attested from 1690s, from the notion of "make a verbal observation" or "call attention to specific points." Related: Remarked; remarking.
"a frontier, boundary of a country; border district," early 13c., from Old French marche "boundary, frontier," from Frankish *marka or some other Germanic source (compare Old Saxon marka, Old English mearc; Old High German marchon "to mark out, delimit," German Mark "boundary"), from Proto-Germanic *markō; see mark (n.1)). Now obsolete. Related: Marches.
In early use often in reference to the borderlands beside Wales, sometimes rendering Old English Mercia; later especially of the English border with Scotland. There was a verb marchen in Middle English (c. 1300), "to have a common boundary," from Old French marchier "border upon, lie alongside," which survived in dialect.
This is the old Germanic word for "border, boundary," but as it came to mean "borderland" in many languages, other words were shifted or borrowed to indicate the original sense (compare border (n.), bound (n.)"border, boundary"). Modern German Grenze is from Middle High German grenize (13c., replacing Old High German marcha), a loan-word from Slavic (compare Polish and Russian granica). Dutch grens, Danish groense, Swedish gräns are from German.
