c. 1400, "boundary, border, frontier, limit" (usually plural), from Old French confins "boundaries," from Medieval Latin confines "a border, boundary," from Latin confinium (plural confinia) "boundary, limit," from confine, neuter of confinis "bordering on, having the same boundaries," from assimilated form of com "with, together" (see con-) + finis "an end" (see finish (v.)). As "the part of a territory which is near the border" (as in Dryden's "Betwixt the confines of the Night and Day") is from c. 1600.
