• (RP, America) IPA: /bæn/
• (Australia) IPA: /bæːn/
• (æ-tensing) IPA: [bɛən], [beən]

From Middle English bannen, partly from Old English bannan, from Proto-West Germanic *bannan; and partly from Old Norse banna, both from Proto-Germanic *bannaną, from Proto-Indo-European , innovative nasal-infixed zero-grade athematic present of *bʰeh₂- ("to say").

Cognate with Dutch bannen, German bannen, Swedish banna, sa-ved भनति, Armenian բան and perhaps Albanian banoj. See also banal, abandon.

ban (bans, present participle banning; simple past and past participle banned)

1. (transitive, obsolete) To summon; to call out.
2. (transitive) To anathematize; to pronounce an ecclesiastical curse upon; to place under a ban.
3. (transitive) To curse; to execrate.
   • c. 1555, Hugh Latimer, a sermon:

     They will curse and ban […] even into the deep pit of hell, all that gainsay their appetite.

4. (transitive) To prohibit; to interdict; to proscribe; to forbid or block from participation.
   • 1816, Lord Byron, The Prisoner of Chillon:

     To whom the goodly earth and air Are banned

   Bare feet are banned in this establishment.

5. (ambitransitive) To curse; to utter curses or maledictions.
   • 1814 July 6, [Walter Scott], Waverley; or, 'Tis Sixty Years Since. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh:  […] James Ballantyne and Co. for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, →OCLC ↗:

     :“I seldom ban, sir,” said he to the man; “but if you play any of your hound's-foot tricks, and leave puir Berwick before he's sorted, to rin after spuilzie, deil be wi' me if I do not give your craig a thraw”

• forbid
• prohibit
• disallow

• allow
• permit

• French: interdire, proscrire, bannir
• German: verbieten
• Italian: espellere, vietare, censurare, bandire, proibire
• Portuguese: proibir, banir
• Russian: запреща́ть
• Spanish: prohibir

ban (plural bans)

1. Prohibition.
   • 1667, John Milton, “Book IX”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC ↗; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC ↗:

     That sacred fruit, sacred to abstinence,
     Much more to taste it under ban to touch

2. A public proclamation or edict; also, a summons by public proclamation, and in early use especially a summons to arms.
   • 1641, William Rastell (trans.), John Rastell, Termes de la Lay, 37b:

     Bans is common and ordinary amongst the Feudists, and signifies a proclamation, or any publike notice.

3. The gathering of the (French) king’s vassals for war; the whole body of vassals assembled this way, or liable to be summoned; originally the same as arriere-ban, but distinct since the 16th century, following French usage—see arriere-ban.
   • 1591, published 1847, Henry Unton, Correspondence of Sir Henry Unton, knt., Ambassador from Queen Elizabeth to Henry IV. King of France, in the years MDXCI. and MDXCII., page 54:

     […] he hath sente abroade to assemble his van and arriere van; wherby, and with the reste of his forces, he prepareth him selfe to enter this countrey; […]

   • 1671, John Crowne, Juliana (play), Act I, page 8:

     […] all the Ban and the Arrierban, are met arm’d in the field, to choose a King […]

   • 1683, William Temple, Memoirs of what past in Christendom, from the War begun 1672, to the Peace concluded 1679, chapter I:

     France was at such a Pinch for Men, […] that they call’d their Ban and Arriere Ban, the assembling whereof had been long disus’ed, and in a Manner antiquated.

   • 1818, Henry Hallam, View of the State of Europe during the Middle Ages, chapter II, part II:

     The ban was sometimes convoked, that is, the possessors of the fiefs were called upon for military service in subsequent ages; but with more of ostentation than real efficiency.

   • 1874, Charles Boutell, Arms And Armour In Antiquity And The Middle Ages, chapter 7, page 98:

     The act of calling together the vassals in armed array, was entitled “convoking the ban”—“convoquer le ban.”

4. (obsolete) A curse or anathema.
   • c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC ↗, [Act III, scene ii]:

     With Hecate's ban thrice blasted, thrice infected

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.

• French: interdiction, prohibition
• German: Verbot
• Italian: proibizione, divieto
• Portuguese: proibição
• Russian: запре́т
• Spanish: prohibición

Borrowed from Romanian ban of uncertain origin, perhaps from Serbo-Croatian ban.

ban (plural bani)

1. A subdivision of currency, equal to one hundredth of a Romanian leu.
2. A subdivision of currency, equal to one hundredth of a Moldovan leu.

• German: Ban

From Banburismus; coined by Alan Turing.

ban (plural bans)

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

• dit, hartley

From zls (compare Serbo-Croatian ban), from sla-pro *banъ; see there for more.

ban (plural bans)

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

• banat, banate, Banat

• German: Ban, Banus
• Italian: bano

1. (sports) Abbreviation of Bangladesh

1. Initialism of British Approved Name

• As a Hungarian - surname, from Bán.
• As a Hungarian - and Serbo-Croatian - surname, from bán, probably related to Avaric баян.
• As a Slovenian -, reduced from Urban.
• As a German - surname, spelling variant of Bann.
• As a Japanese - surname, from 坂.
• As a Korean - surname, spelling variant of Pan.
• As a Chinese - surname, from 班.

1. Surname.