English

Noun

abord ‎(plural abords)

1. (archaic) Manner or way of approaching or accosting; address. [since the early 1600s]

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Chesterfield to this entry?)

Verb

abord ‎(third-person singular simple present abords, present participle abording, simple past and past participle aborded)

1. (transitive, obsolete) To approach. [attested from around 1400 until the late 1600s]
2. (transitive, rare) To accost. [since the early 1600s]
   • 1919, Ronald Firbank, Valmouth, hardback edition, Duckworth, page 82:

     Mrs Hurstpierpoint aborded her with a smile.

References

1. ↑ Philip Babcock Gove (editor), Webster's Third International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged (G. & C. Merriam Co., 1976 [1909], ISBN 0-87779-101-5), page 6

Anagrams

• board, broad, B road, dobra, Dobra

French

Etymology

From Middle French, from aborder, from Old French aborder ‎(“to hit a ship in order to board it”), from bord ‎(“side of a ship, edge”), from Frankish *bord ‎(“side of a ship or vessel”), from Proto-Germanic *burdą ‎(“edge, border, side”), from Proto-Indo-European *bheredh- ‎(“to cut”). Cognate with Old High German bort ‎(“edge, rim, rand”), Old English bord ‎(“ship, side of a ship”), Old Norse borð ‎(“edge, side of a vessel”). More at board.

Pronunciation

Noun

abord m ‎(plural abords)

1. (literary) The manner with which one acts in the presence of another person or persons, especially in a first encounter.
2. (rare) The surroundings of a place.
3. (archaic) Arrival or accessibility by water.

Usage notes

• In the sense "surroundings", the word is almost always a pluralia tantum.
• The sense "manner of acting" is usually now perceived as a backformation from aborder ‎(“to approach”), and is most common in the expression être d'un abord and variations of it.

Derived terms

Related terms

Anagrams

• borda
• broda

Middle English

Etymology

From Old French a + bord ‎(“exterior of a ship”)

Adverb

abord

1. On board; into or within a ship or boat
2. (nautical) Alongside.

Preposition

abord

1. On board of; onto or into a ship, boat, train, plane.