Etymology

The ME word in the sense ‘table’ is sometimes derived straightforwardly from OE bord (so TGD, GDS), although this sense is rare in OE texts. OE bord and its ON cognate, cp. OIcel borð, had a similar range of meanings, including (in both cases) ‘board, plank; side (of a ship); shield’ (cp. further Go -baúrd, OFris, OS bord, OHG bort), and some authorities suggest input from ON, where ‘table’ and subsidiary meanings (e.g. ‘meal, food’) are commonplace (so OED, and presumably MED; note also Durkin 2009: 231). Yet there are nonetheless reasonable grounds in the extant corpus for supposing that OE bord could at least sometimes be understood in this sense before the period of Scandinavian influence, and so it may be better to think of ON input as reinforcing rather than introducing this usage, if such input is  necessary at all (the semantic distance from ‘board’ to ‘board used as a table’ is rather short).

PGmc Ancestor

*bord-

Proposed ON Etymon (OIcel representative)

borð 'board, plank, beam'
(ONP borð (sb.) (senses 4–6))

Other Scandinavian Reflexes

Far borð, Icel borð, Norw bord, Dan bord, Sw bord

OE Cognate

bord 'board, plank (etc.)'

Phonological and morphological markers

Summary category

CCC3

Attestation

Common and widespread in ME in the sense ‘table’  (and dependent sense); VEPN also includes two building names: The King’s Board (Glo.) and The Fish Board (Chs). The unambiguous examples of OE bord ‘table’ given in DOE are in late texts and glosses, but there are some indications of broader use (see further Dance).

Occurrences in the Gersum Corpus

Gaw 481; Cl 1433, 1717; WA 842, 2927, 2969 etc.

Bibliography

MED bōrd (n.) (senses 3–5) , OED board (n.) (sense II) , HOTED , Dance borde, de Vries borð (2), Mag. borð, Bj-L. bord, Orel *ƀurðan, Kroonen *burzda-, AEW bord (2), DOE bord (sense 3), VEPN bord