The Boarder Crossed the Border

A border is an outline of some sort, which shows the boundaries of something. It can be a decorative swirl on or near the edge of a picture or greeting card. It can also show the boundaries of a country, an imaginary line drawn on a map to delineate where one government's power stops and another government's power begins.

A boarder is a person who rents a room, either from a private family or a boarding house. The price of the room usually includes meals, thus you are paying for "room and board". The term board, meaning meals, comes from medieval times when the great hall of the castle was turned into a dining room for the duration of a meal by trestle tables, which basically amounted to boards laid on sawhorses. At that time, many people worked in exchange for "clothing, room, and board", without receiving actual money for their labor.

Remember the difference by knowing that boarder and meal both have an "a" in them, and border and country both have no "a".

~Marie