# ban

Pronunciation: say "BAN" /bæn/

## Verb

1. To officially forbid something or block someone from taking part in an activity.
   - Simple: To officially say that something is not allowed.
   - _The league voted to ban the player after repeated violations._
   - _Several countries ban the import of certain hazardous chemicals._

## Noun

2. An official order that forbids something.
   - Simple: An official rule that says something is not allowed.
   - _The government imposed a ban on single-use plastics._
   - _Voters debated whether to lift the ban on late-night trading._

## Verb

3. To pronounce a formal church curse upon someone, placing them under an ecclesiastical ban. *(archaic)*
   - Simple: To place someone under a religious curse by an official order of the church.
4. To curse someone or something, or to utter curses. *(archaic)*
   - Simple: An old word meaning to curse someone or to swear angrily.
6. To summon someone; to call out men for service. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: To call people and order them to come.

## Noun

5. A curse or anathema pronounced upon someone. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: A curse or solemn statement wishing evil on someone.

## Other meanings

- (noun) A title borne by rulers or provincial governors in several states of central and south-eastern Europe from the 7th to the 20th century.
- (noun) A public proclamation or edict, especially a summons calling subjects to assemble for war.
- (noun) A unit of money equal to one hundredth of a Romanian or Moldovan leu.
- (noun) A unit of information or entropy defined using base-ten logarithms, in contrast to the bit, which is defined using base-two logarithms.
- (noun) A monetary penalty levied on an offender for violating a ban, such as a fine paid to a bishop by one guilty of sacrilege.
- (noun) The gathering of the French king's vassals for war, or the whole body of vassals so assembled or liable to be summoned.

## Origin

English inherited ban from Middle English bannen, which could mean "to summon," "to banish," or "to curse." Bannen had two sources. One was Old English bannan, meaning "to summon, command, proclaim." The other was Old Norse banna, meaning "to prohibit" or "to curse." Both go back to Proto-Germanic *bannaną and, beyond it, to a Proto-Indo-European root meaning "to say." Dutch and German bannen and Swedish banna are cognates.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/ban (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).