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Webster 1913 Edition

Boundary

Bound′a-ry

,
Noun.
;
pl.
Boundaries
[From
Bound
a limit; cf. LL. bonnarium piece of land with fixed limits.]
That which indicates or fixes a limit or extent, or marks a bound, as of a territory; a bounding or separating line; a real or imaginary limit.
But still his native country lies
Beyond the
boundaries
of the skies.
N. Cotton.
That bright and tranquil stream, the
boundary
of Louth and Meath.
Macaulay.
Sensation and reflection are the
boundaries
of our thoughts.
Locke.
Syn. – Limit; bound; border; term; termination; barrier; verge; confines; precinct.
Bound
,
Boundary
. Boundary, in its original and strictest sense, is a visible object or mark indicating a limit. Bound is the limit itself. But in ordinary usage the two words are made interchangeable.

Webster 1828 Edition

Boundary

BOUND'ARY

,
Noun.
A limit; a bound. This word is thus used as synonymous with bound. But the real sense is, a visible mark designating a limit. Bound is the limit itself or furthest point of extension, and may be an imaginary line; but boundary is the thing which ascertains the limit; terminus,not finis. Thus by a statute of Connecticut, it is enacted that the inhabitants of every town shall procure its bounds to be set out by such marks and boundaries as may be a plain direction for the future; which marks and boundaries shall be a great heap of stones or a ditch of six feet long, &c. This distinction is observed also in the statute of Massachusetts. But the two words are, in ordinary use, confounded.

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