Forms: 3– ban; 3–7 banne, 4–6 bane, 9 bann. [Partly a. OF. ban, with influence of med.L. bannum; partly from BAN v. Ultimately all these go back to the same source; F. ban ‘proclamation, publication, summons, proscription, outlawry, banishment, assemblage of military vassals’ was:—late L. bannum, ad. Teut. (OHG., MHG., OS., OFris., MDu.) bann, ban, sb. ‘proclamation commanding or forbidding under threat or penalty,’ f. bann-an to BAN. The simple sb. bann does not appear in OE., which had however ʓebann, rare ME. IBAN ‘proclamation, edict,’ f. the deriv. ʓebannan. The ON. bann ‘excommunication, interdict, prohibition, curse,’ seems too late to have been the source of the Eng. But, as OE. had the vb. bannan, ban from OF. easily assumed the position of its vbl. sb., and the two words, with the med.L. bannum, -us, in its various legal and ecclesiastical uses, subseq. re-acted upon each other, so that the development of sense is complicated.]
I. Authoritative proclamation, and attached senses, from Fr.
1. A public proclamation or edict; a summons by public proclamation. Chiefly, in early use, a summons to arms.
1297. R. Glouc., 188. Þer come to þys rounde table, as he sende ys ban, Aunsel kyng of Scotlond, and al so Vryan.
c. 1325. E. E. Allit. P., B. 1361. Baltazar þurȝ Babiloyn his banne gart crye.
c. 1350. Will. Palerne, 2252. Þe bane is so maked.
a. 1400. in Eng. Gilds, 359. To w[h]eche selynge lat crye þe ban þorghe þe town.
c. 1450. Lonelich, Grail, lii. 761. That ȝe a bane dyde crye thorwh-owt ȝoure lond … Atte the brigge to iusten with a knyht.
[1641. Termes de la Ley, 37 b. Bans is common and ordinary amongst the Feudists, and signifies a proclamation, or any publike notice.]
ǁ 2. a. In feudal usage: 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.
b. In actual use: In the French military system, the ban is the younger and more effective part of the population liable to serve in the militia or national guard, the arrière-ban the reserve, consisting of the older citizens; in the Prussian system, the first and second bans are the two divisions of the Landwehr.
a. a. 1250. Owl & Night., 390. Ich folȝi than aȝte manne, An flo bi niȝt in hore banne.
1591. Unton, Corr. (1847), 54. He hath sente abroad to assemble his van and arriere van.
1671. Crowne, Juliana, I. 8. The Ban and the Arrierban are met arm’d in the field to choose a king.
1683. Temple, Mem., Wks. 1731, I. 392. France was at such a Pinch … that they call’d their Ban and Arriere Ban, the assembling whereof had been long disus’d, and in a manner antiquated.
1818. Hallam, Mid. Ages, II. ii. The ban was sometimes convoked, that is, the possessors of the fiefs were called upon for military services.
1874. Boutell, Arms & Arm., vii. 98. The act of calling together the vassals in armed array, was entitled ‘convoking the ban.’
b. 1813. Examiner, 18 Jan., 38/1. The 100 cohorts of the first Ban of the National Guards.
1866. Cornh. Mag., Nov., 555. The term of service [in Prussian Army] was fixed at twenty years, three of which were to be passed in the ranks of the regular army, two in the reserve, eight in the Landwehr of the first ban, and seven in that of the second ban.
ǁ 3. Sentence of banishment; whence ‘to keep,’ or ‘break his ban.’ (A Gallicism.)
1873. Burton, Hist. Scot., V. lviii. 236. Arran, hearing alarming rumours, broke his ban at Kinniel and hurried to Court.
II. Proclamation of marriage: in this sense always in pl., now spelt BANNS, q.v.
III. Anathematization, curse.
4. A formal ecclesiastical denunciation; anathema, interdict, excommunication.
1481. Caxton, Reynard (Arb.), 43. I stonde a cursed and am in the popes banne.
1638. Penit. Conf., vii. (1657), 115. The third Ban is upon those that affirm the Confession of all sins … to be impossible.
1814. Scott, Ld. Isles, II. xxiv. A wretch, beneath the ban Of Pope and Church.
1860. R. Vaughan, Mystics, I. 164. Strasburg, and all the states which adhere to Louis, are placed under the bann.
b. fig. or transf.
1790. Burke, Fr. Rev., 16–7. All of whom … this archpontiff of the rights of men … puts into one sweeping clause of ban and anathema.
5. gen. A curse, having, or supposed to have, supernatural sanction, and baleful influence.
1602. Shaks., Ham., III. ii. 269. With Hecats Ban, thrice blasted, thrice infected.
1822. Byron, Werner, II. i. 84. A prodigal son, beneath his father’s ban.
1829. Scott, Demonol., i. 41. The negro pines to death who is laid under the ban of an Obi woman.
1874. H. Reynolds, John Bapt., iii. § 4. 221. The land might be smitten by the ban which once fell upon the Canaanites.
6. An imprecation of a curse, an execration or malediction expressing anger.
1596. Spenser, F. Q., III. vii. 39. With blasphemous bannes.
1605. Shaks., Lear, II. iii. 19. Sometimes with Lunaticke bans, sometime with Praiers.
1783–94. W. Blake, Songs of Exp., London, 7. In every ban, The mind-forged manacles I hear.
1879. Lowell, Poet. Wks., 381/2. With many a ban the fisherman Had stumbled o’er and spurned it.
IV. Denunciation, prohibition.
7. A formal and authoritative prohibition; a prohibitory command or edict, an interdict.
1667. Milton, P. L., IX. 925. To taste it under banne to touch.
1845. R. W. Hamilton, Pop. Educ., vi. 126. Bring back the age when Revelation was proscribed. Once more set the ban upon it.
1872. Freeman, Norm. Conq. (1876), IV. xviii. 291. The teaching which put a ban on the flesh of the horse as the food of Christian men. Ibid., V. xxiv. 489. The ban against the tournament was fruitless.
8. A proclamation issued against any one by the civil power; sentence of outlawry; esp. ‘Ban of the (Holy Roman) Empire.’
a. 1674. Clarendon, Hist. Reb., I. I. (1702), 14. The Prince Electour … had … incurred the Ban of the Empire in an Imperial Dyet.
1708. Lond. Gaz., No. 4451/1. To Day the Duke of Mantua was put to the Ban of the Empire.
1810. Coleridge, Friend (1865), 82. Charles V. had pronounced the ban upon him [Luther] and limited his safe convoy to one and twenty days.
1827. Hallam, Const. Hist. (1876), III. xviii. 403. The Presbyterians … were under the ban of the law.
1832. Ht. Martineau, Ireland, v. 80. Under ban for burning his late dwelling.
9. fig. Practical denunciation, prohibition, or outlawry, not formally pronounced, as that of society or public opinion.
1839. Hallam, Hist. Lit., IV. IV. ii. § 21. Still under the ban of an orthodox clergy.
1859. Mill, Liberty, ii. 58. Opinions which are under the ban of society.
1863. Kemble, Resid. Georgia, 11. Free from the chain … of slavery; but they are not the less under a ban.
1869. J. Martineau, Ess., II. 77. What are the objects upon which … the ban of morality is set?
