Ban

Pronunciation

• IPA: /bæn/
• Rhymes: -æn

From Middle English bannen, from Old English bannan ("to summon, command, proclaim, call out"), from Proto-Germanic *bannanÄ… ("curse, forbid"), from Proto-Indo-European *bÊ°a- ("to say"). Cognate with Dutch bannen ("to ban, exile, discard"), German bannen ("to exile, to exorcise, captivate, excommunicate"), Swedish banna ("to ban, scold"), Armenian Õ¢Õ¡Õ¶ and perhaps Albanian banoj ("to reside, dwell").

Full definition of ban

Verb

1. (transitive, obsolete) To summon; call out.
2. (transitive) To anathematise; pronounce an ecclesiastical curse upon; place under a ban.
3. (transitive) To curse; execrate.
4. (transitive) To prohibit; interdict; proscribe; forbid or block from participation.
• 2011, December 14, Steven Morris, Devon woman jailed for 168 days for killing kitten in microwave, Jailing her on Wednesday, magistrate Liz Clyne told Robins: "You have shown little remorse either for the death of the kitten or the trauma to your former friend Sarah Knutton." She was also banned from keeping animals for 10 years.
• 2013-08-10, A new prescription, No sooner has a synthetic drug been blacklisted than chemists adjust their recipe and start churning out a subtly different one. These “legal highs” are sold for the few months it takes the authorities to identify and ban them, and then the cycle begins again.
5. Bare feet are banned in this establishment.
6. (intransitive) To curse; utter curses or maledictions.

Synonyms

• forbid
• prohibit
• disallow

Noun

1. prohibition
• Miltonunder ban to touch
2. A public proclamation or edict; a summons by public proclamation. Chiefly, in early use, a summons to arms.Bans is common and ordinary amongst the Feudists, and signifies a proclamation, or any public notice.
3. The gathering of the (French) king's vassals for war; the whole body of vassals so assembled, or liable to be summoned; originally, the same as arrière-ban: in the 16th c., French usage created a distinction between ban and arrière-ban, for which see the latter word.He has sent abroad to assemble his ban and arriere ban.The Ban and the Arrierban are met armed in the field to choose a king.''France was at such a Pinch..that they call'd their Ban and Arriere Ban, the assembling whereof had been long discussed, and in a manner antiquated.The ban was sometimes convoked, that is, the possessors of the fiefs were called upon for military services.''The act of calling together the vassals in armed array, was entitled ‘convoking the ban.
4. (obsolete) A curse or anathema.
• ShakespeareHecate's ban
5. A pecuniary mulct or penalty laid upon a delinquent for offending against a ban, such as a mulct paid to a bishop by one guilty of sacrilege or other crimes.

Related terms

• black ban
• total fire ban

Borrowing from ro {{2}} of uncertain origin, perhaps from Serbo-Croatian bân

Noun

1. A subdivision of currency, equal to a 1/100th of a Romanian leu
2. A subdivision of currency, equal to a 1/100th of a Moldavian леу

From Banburismus; coined by Alan Turing.

Noun

1. A unit measuring information or entropy based on base-ten logarithms, rather than the base-two logarithms that define the bit.

Derived terms

• deciban

Synonyms

• dit, hartley

From South Slavic ban (cf. Serbo-Croatian bȃn), itself a borrowing from a language, probably from the Avar word (bajan, "ruler of the horde"), a derivation of the Proto-Turkic *bāj- ("rich, noble").

Noun

1. A title used in several states in central and south-eastern Europe between the 7th century and the 20th century.

Anagrams

• ABN
• nab, NAB
• NBA