borderlandn.
(Also with hyphen and as two words.)
1. A land or district on or near the border between two countries or districts; particularly the border district between England and Scotland.
ΘΚΠ
society > inhabiting and dwelling > inhabited place > district in relation to human occupation > a land or country > part of country or district > [noun] > border district(s)
end-landc1175
marcha1325
bounds1340
coast1377
marcherc1475
border1489
marchland1536
confines1548
front1589
limitrophe1589
commark1612
land-march1614
frontier1676
Border-sidea1700
borderland1813
border-countryc1885
rimland1942
1813 J. Hogg Queen's Wake Concl. 335 Leyden came from Border land.
1850 G. Grote Hist. Greece VII. ii. lv. 37 A neutral strip of borderland.
1874 J. R. Green Short Hist. Eng. People iv. §1. 158 Offa tore from Wales the border land between the Severn and the Wye.
2.
a. figurative.
ΘΚΠ
the world > space > relative position > condition or fact of being interjacent > [noun] > that which is interjacent
meana1400
moyen1483
umpire1605
intermedium1611
intermediate1650
middle1665
between-lier1674
borderland1821
border-ground1871
border-world1878
grey zone1900
twilight zone1909
grey area1935
1821 C. Lamb in London Mag. Aug. 153/2 Between the affirmative and the negative there is no border-land with him.
1863 H. W. Longfellow Prelude viii, in Tales Wayside Inn 8 The twilight that surrounds The border-land of old romance.
1878 R. B. Smith Carthage 370 That borderland between fact and fiction.
b. attributive, esp. in the senses (a) of or pertaining to the ‘land’ between this world and the next; (b) = borderline n. 2.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the supernatural > [adjective] > relating to land beyond
borderland1894
metethereala1901
the world > health and disease > mental health > mental illness > degree or type of mental illness > [noun] > slight madness > person
touched1625
three-quarter cleft1830
quarter cleft1831
mattoid1891
borderland1894
borderline case1907
wackadoo1979
wackadoodle1991
1894 F. Podmore Apparitions & Thought-transference xi. 249 The voice in this case awoke the percipient,..but it was of the ‘borderland’ type.
1894 F. Podmore Apparitions & Thought-transference xi. 257 The hallucination should be classed as a ‘borderland’ case.
1896 Brit. Med. Jrnl. 25 Jan. 61/1 Mental or Borderland case.
1898 Daily News 30 July 5/5 One thing about the deceased deputy may interest ‘Borderland’ readers.
1904 E. G. Younger Insanity in Every-day Pract. 99 Borderland states..are cases of nervous weakness which do not quite fit in with any of the recognised forms of insanity.
1904 E. G. Younger Insanity in Every-day Pract. 101 Dr. Walsh has told me of a borderland case under his care which benefited greatly under his treatment.
1904 Westm. Gaz. 1 Dec. 6/3 He regarded the deceased's as a ‘borderland’ case.
1909 Times Lit. Suppl. 14 Jan. 9/1 It is a vague, borderland word.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1887; most recently modified version published online December 2020).
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n.1813