bans
ban1
- to prohibit, forbid, or bar; interdict: to ban nuclear weapons; The dictator banned all newspapers and books that criticized his regime.
- Archaic.
- to pronounce an ecclesiastical curse upon.
- to curse; execrate.
- the act of prohibiting by law; interdiction.
- informal denunciation or prohibition, as by public opinion: society's ban on racial discrimination.
- Law.
- a proclamation.
- a public condemnation.
- Ecclesiastical. a formal condemnation; excommunication.
- a malediction; curse.
Origin of ban1
Synonyms
Antonyms
banns
or bans
- notice of an intended marriage, given three times in the parish church of each of the betrothed.
- any public announcement of a proposed marriage, either verbal or written and made in a church or by church officials.
Origin of banns
ban2
- a public proclamation or edict.
- bans, Ecclesiastical. banns.
- (in the feudal system)
- the summoning of the sovereign's vassals for military service.
- the body of vassals summoned.
Origin of ban2
Related Words
embargorestrictionrefusalinjunctionprohibitionboycottcensorshipprohibitbarhaltpreventsuppressoutlawrestrictexcludeproscribeproscriptionstoppageinterdictionlimitationExamples from the Web for bans
Contemporary Examples
New York blinks in the face of uncertainty and bans hydraulic fracturing.
UNO currently bans students from smoking in their own cars on campus, despite the fact that it has no legal grounds to do so.
These bans were briefly lifted in 1999 by Miss America CEO Robert Beck; they were quickly reinstated, and Beck was fired.
Not to be outdone, North Korea bans all religious practice of any kind.
In Britain, bans on same-sex marriages were described as “a form of sexual apartheid.”
Historical Examples
Nothing remained to be done but to publish the bans and fix the date.
The Man With The Broken EarEdmond About
The last publication of the bans of marriage in Massachusetts.
The Every Day Book of History and ChronologyJoel Munsell
You need not go to Cuba—the laws of Virginia do not forbid the bans.
AloneMarion Harland
There, too, were the bans of her brother Maurice published, and there he was married.
He went on his way as before, carrying on his opposition by means of force and bans.
Stories and PicturesIsaac Loeb Peretz
bans
- a variant spelling of banns
banns
bans
- the public declaration of an intended marriage, usually formally announced on three successive Sundays in the parish churches of both the betrothed
- forbid the banns to raise an objection to a marriage announced in this way
Word Origin
ban1
- (tr) to prohibit, esp officially, from action, display, entrance, sale, etc; forbidto ban a book; to ban smoking
- (tr) (formerly in South Africa) to place (a person suspected of illegal political activity) under a government order restricting his movement and his contact with other people
- archaic to curse
- an official prohibition or interdiction
- law an official proclamation or public notice, esp of prohibition
- a public proclamation or edict, esp of outlawry
- archaic public censure or condemnation
- archaic a curse; imprecation
Word Origin
ban2
- (in feudal England) the summoning of vassals to perform their military obligations
Word Origin
ban3
- a monetary unit of Romania and Moldova worth one hundredth of a leu
Word Origin
Word Origin and History for bans
ban
v.
Old English bannan "to summon, command, proclaim," from Proto-Germanic *bannan "proclaim, command, forbid" (cf. Old High German bannan "to command or forbid under threat of punishment," German bannen "banish, expel, curse"), originally "to speak publicly," from PIE root *bha- (2) "to speak" (cf. Old Irish bann "law," Armenian ban "word;" see fame (n.)).
Main modern sense of "to prohibit" (late 14c.) is from Old Norse cognate banna "to curse, prohibit," and probably in part from Old French ban, which meant "outlawry, banishment," among other things (see banal) and was a borrowing from Germanic. The sense evolution in Germanic was from "speak" to "proclaim a threat" to (in Norse, German, etc.) "curse."
The Germanic root, borrowed in Latin and French, has been productive, e.g. banish, bandit, contraband, etc. Related: Banned; banning. Banned in Boston dates from 1920s, in allusion to the excessive zeal and power of that city's Watch and Ward Society.
ban
n.2
"governor of Croatia," from Serbo-Croatian ban "lord, master, ruler," from Persian ban "prince, lord, chief, governor," related to Sanskrit pati "guards, protects." Hence banat "district governed by a ban," with Latinate suffix -atus. The Persian word got into Slavic perhaps via the Avars.
banns
n.
see bann.
ban
n.1
"edict of prohibition," c.1300, "proclamation or edict of an overlord," from Old English (ge)bann "proclamation, summons, command" and Old French ban, both from Germanic; see ban (v.).