Bore Is Three Words, and Nobody Knows Where the Dull One Came From
To bore is to drill, and also to weary. The two verbs are unrelated, and a third bore is a tidal wave.
To bore is to drill a hole, and also to make someone weary. The drilling verb is Old English and perfectly clear. The tedium verb appears suddenly in the 1760s as fashionable London slang, with no known source — an early example of a word with a documented arrival but no ancestry. A third *bore* is a tidal wave surging up a river, from Old Norse. *Bore* is also the past tense of *bear*.
- To drill. *Bore a hole.*
- To weary. *The lecture bored me.*
- A tidal wave. *The Severn bore.*
- A barrel's diameter. *A 12-bore shotgun.*
- Old English — *borian*, to drill. *The first sense.*
Word forms
| Form | Word | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Verb | bore | Boring. |
| Noun | bore | A bore. |
| Adjective | boring | Boring. |
| Adjective | bored | Bored. |
| Past of bear | bore | She bore it. |
- They bored a hole in the wall.Drilling.
- The film bored everyone.Tedium.
- The Severn bore draws surfers.Tidal wave.
About tidal bores
- A wave travels upstream against the river current
- It needs a wide estuary narrowing sharply inland
- A large tidal range is essential
- The Severn bore in England is regularly surfed
- The Qiantang bore in China is the largest known
The drilling verb is Old English *borian*. The tedium verb appears in the 1760s, origin unknown. The tidal wave is Old Norse *bara*.
Are the two verbs related?
No. Drilling is Old English. The sense of wearying appears in the 1760s as slang with no known origin.
What is a tidal bore?
A wave that travels up a river against the current, formed where a large tide funnels into a narrowing estuary.