BORN/BORNE The word you want for discussions of birth, actual or metaphorical, is “born,” whether one was born yesterday, born in a trunk or out of wedlock, or New York–born. Otherwise, things that are carried or produced are borne. Diseases are insect-borne. A tree that bears fruit has, then, borne fruit. The right to bear arms is the right to have borne them. And though triumph may be born out of tragedy, one’s grand schemes may not be borne out in reality.
