ban

1 of 3

verb

banned; banning; bans

transitive verb

1
: to prohibit especially by legal means
ban discrimination
Is smoking banned in all public buildings?
also : to prohibit the use, performance, or distribution of
ban a book
ban a pesticide
2
: bar entry 2 sense 3c
banned from the U.N.
3
archaic : curse
It is a hard fate … to be banned … by the world, only because one has sought to be wiser than the world is.Edward Bulwer Lytton

intransitive verb

archaic : to utter curses or condemnations
The serious world will scold and banJoseph Rodman Drake

ban

2 of 3

noun (1)

plural bans
1
: legal or formal prohibition
a ban on beef exports
2
: censure or condemnation especially through social pressure
was under ban for her political views
3
religion : anathema, excommunication
under the pope's ban
4
: malediction, curse
uttered a ban upon his enemies
5
: the summoning in feudal times of the king's vassals for military service

ban

3 of 3

noun (2)

plural bani ˈbä-(ˌ)nē How to pronounce ban (audio)
: a monetary subunit of the leu see leu at Money Table

Examples of ban in a Sentence

Verb The school banned that book for many years. The city has banned smoking in all public buildings. The drug was banned a decade ago. The use of cell phones is banned in the restaurant. Noun (1) a father's ban upon his ungrateful son a quiet seaside resort with a ban on the drinking of alcohol in public places
Recent Examples on the Web
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Verb
Trump has pledged to defund gender-affirming care—and to ban it for minors. Madison Pauly and Sarah Szilagy, Them, 5 Nov. 2024 During his time in Congress, Pocan has pushed back on efforts to ban or force a sale of the popular social media app Tik Tok and was quick to address last year's attack on Israel by Hamas, which drew him into a feud with a pro-Israel group. Laura Schulte, Journal Sentinel, 5 Nov. 2024
Noun
It's since gotten harder to circumvent, but there are still ways to get around the ban. Kate Irwin, PCMAG, 7 Nov. 2024 Moreover, the net ban is protected by the constitution already, similar to private property rights. Natalie Krebs, Outdoor Life, 6 Nov. 2024 See all Example Sentences for ban 

Word History

Etymology

Verb

Middle English bannen "to summon (troops) by proclamation, assemble (an armed force), gather (arms), curse, anathematize, prohibit, outlaw," going back to Old English bannan (class VII strong verb) "to summon by proclamation, call to arms," going back to Germanic *bannan- "to speak formally, call on, order" (whence also Old Frisian bonna, banna "to call upon, command, place under a ban," Old Saxon & Old High German bannan "to summon, order," Old Norse banna "to prohibit, curse"), going back to Indo-European *bho-n-h2-e-, presumed o-grade intensive derivative (with gemination from a present formation with *-nu̯-e-?) from a verbal base *bheh2- "speak, say," whence also Latin for, fārī "to speak, say," Greek phēmí, phánai, Armenian bay "(s/he) says, speaks," and with extensions Eastern Church Slavic baju, bajati "to tell (stories), cast a spell, cure," Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian bȁjati "to tell tales, practice sorcery," Sanskrit bhánati "(s/he) speaks, says, (it) sounds"

Note: The senses "curse, anathematize, prohibit," etc., in Middle English are not attested in Old English and are generally thought to reflect influence of the cognate Old Norse verb. The English verb has also been influenced in sense by Medieval Latin bannīre and Old French banir (see banish). — The reconstruction of the source of Germanic *bannan- in Indo-European terms is from G. Kroonen, Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic (Brill, 2013), though any number of alternative reconstructions are possible that result in the new verbal base *bann-. Indo-European *bheh2- "speak, say" is phonetically identical with and probably a semantic offshoot of the base *bheh2- "shine, give light, appear" (see fantasy entry 1); the presumed sense in shift would be "shine, give light" > "make bright, illuminate" > "make clear, clarify" > "speak, say."

Noun (1)

Middle English ban, bane, banne "proclamation by an authority, summons, one of the marriage banns, troop of warriors summoned by their overlord," in part noun derivative of bannen "to summon (troops) by proclamation," in part borrowed from Anglo-French ban, baan "proclamation, edict, jurisdiction, one of the marriage banns" (also continental Old French, "summons to arms by a lord, proclamation commanding or prohibiting an action"), going back to Old Low Franconian *banna-, going back to Germanic (whence also Old Frisian bon, ban, bān "order commanding or prohibiting under pain of a fine, authority, summoning of the army, banishment," Old Saxon bann "command, summons, fine, excommunication," Old High German ban "command by an authority, order, legal extension or withdrawal of protection"), noun derivative of *bannan- "to speak formally, call on, order" — more at ban entry 1

Note: The Middle English noun may also continue Old English gebann, gebenn "edict, proclamation, command," a derivative of gebannan, similar in meaning to unprefixed bannan. The negative senses "prohibition, condemnation," etc., though present to a limited degree already in early Medieval Latin, do not appear in English (or French) until the sixteenth century, and are in part derived from the verb ban entry 1. The Germanic etymon appears in Latin as bannus (or bannum), from the sixth century in Gregory of Tours' Historia Francorum, and the seventh century in the Lex Ripuaria, the laws of the Ripuarian Franks; the Latin word went on to develop a broad range of meanings (compare the entries in J. F. Niermeyer, Mediae Latinitatis lexicon minus and Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources).

Noun (2)

Romanian, money, coin, small coin

First Known Use

Verb

12th century, in the meaning defined at transitive sense 3

Noun (1)

13th century, in the meaning defined at sense 5

Noun (2)

1880, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of ban was in the 12th century

Dictionary Entries Near ban

Cite this Entry

“Ban.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ban. Accessed 23 Nov. 2024.

Kids Definition

ban

1 of 2 verb
banned; banning
1
: to forbid especially by law or social pressure
2

ban

2 of 2 noun
1
2
: an official order forbidding something

Legal Definition

ban

1 of 2 transitive verb
banned; banning
: to prohibit or forbid especially by legal means (as by statute or order)
ban solicitation
also : to prohibit the use, performance, or distribution of
legislation to ban DDT

ban

2 of 2 noun
: prohibition especially by statute or order
a ban on automatic weapons

More from Merriam-Webster on ban

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