[Pers. bān lord, master, keeper; brought into Europe by the Avars who ruled in Slavonic countries subject to Hungary.] The name given to the governor or viceroy of certain military districts in Hungary, Slavonia, and Croatia, who takes the command in time of war.
Hence: Banate, Bannat, the district under the jurisdiction of a ban, as the Hungarian Banate, the Banate of Croatia; Banal a., of or pertaining to a ban; sb. a Banate.
1614. Selden, Titles Hon., 381. The Hungarian Bans … are Presidents or Gouernors of some Kingdomes belonging to that Kingdom, as Dalmatia, Croatia, Slauonia, Seruia and others.
1687. Lond. Gaz., No. 2224/3. The Ban of Croatia had … drawn together the Imperial Troops … to oppose their design.
1804. Campbell, Turk. Lady. On Transylvania’s Bannat When the Crescent shone afar.
1832. trans. Sismondi’s Ital. Repub., xi. 255. The kingdom of Bosnia, and the bannat of Sclavonia.
1835. Penny Cycl., III. 359/2. The Banal Frontier was formed in the course of the year 1696.
1860. R. D., in Vac. Tour, 107. Numerous dukes, princes, and bans … exercised sway in the country now called Servia.
