Forms: (1 burn, burna, 1–3 burne), 4, 7 borne, 4– bourne, 5–7 bowrne, 6–7 boorn(e, 7– bourn. [A variant of BURN, being the form commonly used in the south of England since the 14th c. Originally pronounced like burn, adjourn: but the influence of the r disturbed the pronunciation, as in mourn; whence the mod. spelling and pronunciation.]
A small stream, a brook; often applied (in this spelling) to the winter bournes or winter torrents of the chalk downs. Applied to northern streams it is usually spelt BURN.
c. 1325. E. E. Allit. P., A. 973. Bow vp to-warde þys bornez heued.
1362. Langl., P. Pl., A. Prol. 8. Vndur a brod banke bi a Bourne syde.
c. 1440. Bone Flor., 609. Ranne bowrnes all on blode.
1576. Lambarde, Peramb. Kent (1826), 260. Sundry smal brookes, or boornes.
1612. Drayton, Poly-olb., 3. The Bournes, the Brooks, the Becks, the Rills, the Rivilets.
c. 1630. Risdon, Surv. Devon, § 281 (1810), 292. Whereout … a spring breaketh, by some called a borne.
1634. Milton, Comus, 313. And every bosky bourn from side to side.
1657. Howell, Londinop., 10. Those ancient and present Rivers, Brooks, Boorns, Pools, Wells, Conduits, and Aqueducts, which serve to refresh the City of London.
1757. Dyer, Fleece, II. 383. He [Drayton] whose rustic muse … sung the bosky bourns of Alfred’s shires.
a. 1856. Longf., Happiest Land, viii. Over mountain gorge and bourn [rhyme-wd. horn].
1879. Jefferies, Wild Life in S. Co., 22. The villages on the downs are generally on a bourne, or winter water-course…. In summer it is a broad winding trench … along whose bed you may stroll dryshod…. In winter, the bourne often has the appearance of a broad brook.
fig. c. 1430. Hymns Virg. (1867), 71. In þin herte blood, þat holi bourne [rhyme-wd. spurn].
