Difference between revisions of "Bind - bound - bounded"

Revision as of 19:27, 30 October 2012

There are at least three separate verb forms bound. Do not confuse these.

• Bound can be the past tense and the past participle of the irregular verb 'to bind'. This means 'to tie'.
• It is also the present tense of different regular verbs:
  • 'to bound' (OED's v.²) means 'to jump up' or 'along'. This can be literal (horses are often said to bound along) or figurative, as when someone's spirits, or mood, is said to bound up. (This verb is connected etymologically with 'rebound'.)
  • 'to bound' is also a verb whose general meaning is 'to set a limit to', or 'mark the boundaries of'. (This verb (OED's v.¹) is connected etymologically with boundary.)

Both of these, being regular verbs, have past forms, both past tense and past participle, bounded.

• Some participial adjectives bound also exist. They form perhaps the commonest use of the word in spoken Present-day English.
  • The first is the -ed participle of the obsolete verb boun, of which the general sense was 'to make ready', 'to prepare' or 'to dress'. Hence bound means 'ready'. From this there is a special sense:
    • 'ready', or 'set on', 'aiming at', a particular destination. This is common when saying where a ship is going: "She is London (or homeward) bound"; a ship leaving London may be 'foreign bound'.
  • The participial adjective of 'to 'bind' (~ 'tied') also has special meanings. Some belong to particular contexts:
    • Invalids may be house-bound', or wheelchair-bound, that is, 'tied' to those places. People who have led active lives, such as soldiers, and then been promoted into management can be desk-nound.
    • People who work outdoors, or live in rural areas, may be weather-bound, or 'tied' to the house by rainstorms, etc. Sailing ships used on occasion to be wind-bound, that is, 'tied' to harbour by a wind that was not favourable to departure.
    • The pages of books are 'tied' into a binding, or bound', as in leather-bound or paper-bound (nowadays, usually 'paperback'). These may be prepared bya binder (person, or nowadays a machine) in a bindery (place of work);
    • There is also a most common figurative meaning. This appears to have been influenced by the above participle of bound. OED's meaning 7.is: "a.Under obligations (of duty, gratitude, etc.); Const. a person, or the duty owed; b. Having entered into a contract binding to service, as ‘a bound apprentice’; c. With inf[initive].: Compelled, obliged; under necessity (esp. logical or moral); fated, certain; also in U.S. determined, resolved (sc. to go, etc.).