What is "bourne"

Bourn \Bourn\, Bourne \Bourne\, n. [F. borne. See Bound a limit.] A bound; a boundary; a limit. Hence: Point aimed at; goal.

Where the land slopes to its watery bourn.
--Cowper.

The undiscovered country, from whose bourn No traveler returns.
--Shak.

Sole bourn, sole wish, sole object of my song.
--Wordsworth.

To make the doctrine . . . their intellectual bourne.
--Tyndall.

Bourn \Bourn\, Bourne \Bourne\, n. [OE. burne, borne, AS. burna; akin to OS. brunno spring, G. born, brunnen, OHG. prunno, Goth. brunna, Icel. brunnr, and perh. to Gr. ?. The root is prob. that of burn, v., because the source of a stream seems to issue forth bubbling and boiling from the earth. Cf. Torrent, and see Burn, v.] A stream or rivulet; a burn.

My little boat can safely pass this perilous bourn.
--Spenser.

n. 1 (context countable archaic English) A boundary. 2 (context archaic English) A goal or destination. 3 (context countable English) A stream or brook in which water flows only seasonally.

1. n. an archaic term for a boundary [syn: bourn]

2. an archaic term for a goal or destination [syn: bourn]

Bourne is a family name, which may refer to:

• Aleck Bourne (1886-1974), British gynecologist and writer tried in a landmark 1938 case for an illegal abortion
• Ansel Bourne, 19th-century American evangelical preacher, among the first documented cases of multiple personality and amnesia
• Benjamin Bourne (1755-1808), American jurist and member of the House of Representatives for Rhode Island
• Bob Bourne (born 1954), National Hockey League player
• Daniel Bourne (born 1955), American poet and translator
• Evan Bourne, stage name of American professional wrestler Matt Sydal
• Francis Bourne (1861—1935), English prelate of the Catholic Church
• Frank Bourne (1854-1945), British soldier and last known survivor of the Battle of Rorke's Drift
• George Bourne (1780–1845), American abolitionist and editor
• Hugh Bourne (1772–1852), joint founder of Primitive Methodism, the largest offshoot of Wesleyan Methodism
• J. L. Bourne, American author
• J. R. Bourne (born 1970), Canadian actor
• James Bourne (born 1983), British singer-songwriter
• Jason Bourne, fictional character created by Robert Ludlum
• John Bourne (artist) (born 1943), British artist and painter
• John Cooke Bourne (1814–1896) was an artist and engraver
• Jonathan Bourne, Jr. (1855-1940), U.S. Senator from Oregon
• London Bourne (1793–1869), former Barbadian slave who became a wealthy merchant and abolitionist
• Matthew Bourne, British choreographer
• Nick Bourne (born 1952), British politician
• Peter Bourne (born 1939), anthropologist, writer, and civil servant
• Philip Bourne, scientist
• Possum Bourne (1956-2003), New Zealand rally car driver
• Randolph Bourne (1886-1918), American Progressivist writer and essayist
• Robert Bourne (developer) (born 1950), British property developer
• Samuel Bourne (1834-1912), British photographer of India
• Shae-Lynn Bourne (born 1976), Canadian ice dancer
• Stephen R. Bourne, British born computer scientist who created the Bourne Shell in Unix
• Una Mabel Bourne (1882–1974), Australian Pianist and Composer

Bourne or Bourn may refer to:

Bourne are a series of three novels by Robert Ludlum based on the fictional spy Jason Bourne. The series has since been further extended by Eric Van Lustbader after the death of Robert Ludlum.

The Bourne films are a series of action spy thriller films based on the character Jason Bourne ( Matt Damon), a CIA assassin suffering from extreme memory loss who must figure out who he is, created by author Robert Ludlum. The Bourne Legacy introduces a new main character, Aaron Cross ( Jeremy Renner), a Department of Defense operative who runs for his life because of Bourne's actions in Ultimatum.

All three of Ludlum's novels were adapted for the screen, featuring Matt Damon as the title character in each. Doug Liman directed The Bourne Identity (2002) and Paul Greengrass directed The Bourne Supremacy (2004), The Bourne Ultimatum (2007) and Jason Bourne (2016). Tony Gilroy co-wrote each film except for Jason Bourne and directed The Bourne Legacy (2012).

Damon chose not to return for the fourth film. The character of Jason Bourne does not appear in Legacy, but mention of his name and pictures of Damon as Bourne are shown throughout the film. Damon returned for the fifth installment, Jason Bourne.

The Bourne series has received generally positive critical reception and grossed over $1.4 billion. It is noted for its use of real stunt work, in contrast to the growing use of computer-generated imagery in action scenes.

Bourne is a word from the Anglo-Saxon language of England. It means an intermittent stream, flowing from a spring. Frequent in chalk and limestone country where the rock becomes saturated with winter rain, that slowly drains away until the rock becomes dry, when the stream ceases.

The word can be found in northern England in placenames such as: Redbourne, Legbourne, but is commonly in used in southern England (particularly Dorset) as a name for a small river, particularly in compound names such as winterbourne. A winterbourne is a stream or river that is dry through the summer months.

Bourne is used as a place name or as a part of a place name, usually in chalk downland countryside. Alternative forms are bourn or borne or born. The apparent variant, borne found in the placename: Camborne, arises from the Cornish language and is in fact a false friend: it refers to a hill (Cornish: bronn, from Common Brythonic *brunda; compare Irish bruinn). Born/borne in German also means fount, or spring, and is related to the Indo-European root, *bhreu. That born/borne appears throughout Europe as a placename is also an important clue that this spelling is an etymological precursor to the Middle English bourne/burn.

Cf. Burn (landform), in common use in Scotland and North East England especially, but also found (in placenames) elsewhere in England such as: Blackburn, Gisburn, Woburn, Kilburn, Tyburn, Winkburn, and so forth.

For rivers and places named Bourne or having this word as part of the name, see Bourne (disambiguation).