"ban" = "requirement"

[Jonathan Lighter]

That was then.

JL

On Wed, May 5, 2010 at 11:53 AM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: "ban" = "requirement"
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> At 11:15 AM -0400 5/5/10, Joel S. Berson wrote:
> >At 5/5/2010 10:32 AM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> >>But Larry may be on to something, Not that they know what a "bann" is,
> >
> >I'm sure they don't.
> >
> >>but
> >>they must think of "ban on" as any kind of "public edict about."
> >
> >Perhaps they're right!   I am surprised to find that "any kind of
> >public edict" *is* one meaning:
> >
> >"ban, n1, I. Authoritative proclamation, and attached senses, from
> >Fr.  1. A public proclamation or edict; a summons by public
> >proclamation."  In use as late as c1450 and [1641].
> >
> >Joel
> >
>
> I was going to suggest that "bann(s)"/"ban" might be a case of
> lexical convergence of items from diverse sources, as with "ear" or
> "un-", with the likelihood that there were folks over the centuries
> who just took "bann" to be a quaint spelling of this generalized
> "ban" used in contexts of public pronouncements concerning weddings.
> but after writing this, I thought to check the OED, where I found
> this under _banns_, indicating that just folks would essentially have
> been right:
>
> _banns_, n. pl.
> The same word as BAN n.1 'proclamation,' in a specific use, in which
> it was from some cause regularly pronounced with long [a] from 15th
> to 17th c. The Prayer-book of 1549 has exceptionally bannes, that of
> 1552 bannes and banes, all edd. from 1559 to 1661 banes, from 1662
> onward banns, after med.L. bannum, used, as well as F. ban, in same
> sense. The singular occurs in 15th c.; the plural only is found after.
>
>
> LH
>
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