Also 6 (bortherer), Sc. borderar, bourdurer, 7 bordurer, -drer. [f. BORDER v. and sb. + -ER1: with sense cf. Londoner.]
1. One who dwells near the border of a country or district; spec. one who dwells near the border of England and Scotland.
1494. Fabyan, VII. ccxxxvi. 274. A great parte of Northumberlonde, the whiche he hadde wonne from the borderers.
1513. Bp. Ruthall to Wolsey, in Nat. MSS. II. 8. [They] dare not trust the borderers which be falser than Scottes, and have doon mor harme at this tyme to our folkes.
1599. Shaks., Hen. V., I. ii. 142. A Wall sufficient to defend Our in-land from the pilfering Borderers.
1805. Scott, Last Minstrel, III. vi. Stern was the dint the Borderer lent.
1839. Stonehouse, Axholme, 63. Inhabitants of the Isle, or Borderers, as they are termed in the Inquisition of 1607.
1884. Manch. Exam., 10 Dec., 5/1. Before the Bill passed, these borderers belonged to the county and had no votes.
2. One who dwells in a district bordering upon another; one who borders on or dwells close to or by (a region or its inhabitants); a next neighbor. Formerly also said of a country.
1538. Leland, Itin., IV. 57. One Inon a Walsch man, Borderer vnto Hym.
1579. Fenton, Guicciard., Ep. Ded. Al your neighbours and borderers.
1632. J. Hayward, trans. Biondi’s Eromena, 113. The former [Corsica] being so neere a borderer to the latter [Sardegna], as they almost joyne.
1649. Selden, Laws Eng., I. iv. (1739), 9. Borderers upon the Roman world.
1776. Gibbon, Decl. & F., I. 224. The borderers of the Rhine and Danube.
c. 1854. Stanley, Sinai & Pal., iii. (1858), 164. Nabal … was a borderer on the wilderness.
b. fig.
a. 1637. B. Jonson, Discov., 128, in Wks. 1640 (L.). The Poet is the neerest Borderer upon the Orator, and expresseth all his vertues, though he be tyed more to numbers; is his equall in ornament, and above him in his strengths.
1748. Richardson, Clarissa (1811), II. xlvi. 344. Pride and meanness … are … close borderers on each other.
1820. Hazlitt, Lect. Dram. Lit., 31. Borderers on the savage state.
1858. Gladstone, Homer, III. 283. We keep the Phæacians … as borderers between the world of Greek experience, and the world of fable.
3. One who makes borders or bordering. Black-borderer: one who makes black-edged paper.
1880. Daily Tel., 9 Jan. Advt., Black Borderer wanted.
1881. Glasgow Trades Direct., 806/1. Black Borderers.
4. = BORDAR.
1771. Antiq. Sarisb., 29. A hide and half of land, and the land of one borderer, in the same Town.
