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Yep, like passport control or customs control (at the airport).

It's a funny one. In English we say "passport control" and "border control", but we would mostly otherwise use the word "check". I've encountered Italian speakers saying "Have they controlled your ticket?" when they mean "checked" (or "inspected"), simply because "controllare" in Italian means "to check", and feels like it ought to make sense in English, but doesn't.

On a related note, I have yet to encounter a French speaker saying in English "Sorry to derange you", but I am hopeful it will one day happen.

"Border control" does arguably use the ordinary meaning of control: they control the border by checking passports.

But check also has an interesting etymology. Its many meanings include a type of payment note (aka "cheque"), to obstruct ("check somebody's progress", "body check"), to verify, to inspect; also checker (divide into small squares) and exchequer (the UK treasury)... all come from the Persian word shah, meaning king, through chess-related metaphors. (Also the word chess itself)

Thanks for posting this - I love a bit of etymology on a Sunday afternoon!

If "border control" means literally controlling the border, does that make "passport control" some sort of obtuse synecdoche, where they check the passport in order to control the border?

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