Definition
In old English law, a bound, boundary, border, or limit. The term denoted the physical or legal demarcation separating one parcel of land, jurisdiction, or territory from another. Functionally equivalent to the Latin terms *terminus* (end point or limit) and *limes* (boundary line or border). Used in early land records, charters, and conveyancing documents to describe the edges or outer limits of a grant or holding.
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Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): Slang term for the buttocks.
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): Not recorded as an English word in Webster's 1913.
The gap here is complete. The modern slang meaning shares no semantic relationship with the legal meaning. Researchers encountering *bunda* in historical legal documents should treat it as a term of art from old English land law, with no connection to contemporary colloquial usage.
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Why It Matters in Research
*Bunda* is encountered almost exclusively in transcriptions of medieval and early English land records — charters, perambulations, and conveyances from the Anglo-Norman and early common law periods. Its practical significance lies in boundary disputes and the reconstruction of historical land descriptions. Researchers working in that corpus should note several traps:
**Terminological overlap.** *Bunda* is one of several near-synonyms in the historical record. *Metes*, *bounds*, *termini*, *limes*, and *bunda* are used interchangeably or in combination in source documents, depending on the scrivener's preference and the Latin or Anglo-Norman register of the instrument. Distinguishing between them matters less than recognizing that all point to the same underlying legal concept: the demarcation of a land unit.
**Sparse appearance in secondary sources.** Because *bunda* dropped out of active legal usage early, it rarely appears in treatises beyond brief glossary entries. Researchers relying on secondary sources alone may miss it in primary documents entirely. The term is a marker that a document is quite old and warrants careful attention to surrounding land description language.
**Connection to perambulation practice.** *Bunda* appears in contexts tied to the formal walking of boundaries — a practice with both legal and ceremonial dimensions in medieval English land tenure. Understanding the term connects to the broader corpus on boundary establishment, seisin, and the physical acts that confirmed land rights before systematic surveying.
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Historical Dictionary Support
Both editions of Black's Law Dictionary consulted here are in agreement: *bunda* means "a bound, boundary, border, or limit," with the Latin glosses *terminus* and *limes* provided as equivalents. The first and second editions differ only by the inclusion of "border" in the first edition listing — a distinction without practical consequence.
Neither edition provides depth beyond the single-sentence gloss, which is consistent with the term's function as a relic of early English legal Latin rather than an operative term of the developed common law. Historical dictionaries covering medieval Latin legal usage, such as Du Cange's *Glossarium Mediae et Infimae Latinitatis*, would provide richer treatment for researchers who need to trace the term in its original documentary context, though that source lies outside the Law Mind shelf.
No divergence between the two Black's editions is significant enough to affect research. The consistency across editions confirms this is a stable, if obscure, gloss with no contested meaning.
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Jurisdictional Note
*Bunda* is an artifact of English legal history and has no recognized usage in American, Scottish, or other common law jurisdictions as a term of art. Researchers will encounter it only in English historical primary sources.
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