Word Confusion: Banns versus Bans

Alternative spelling: bans

Plural for the noun:

• bans
• bani [Romanian]

Gerund: banning

Third person present verb: bans
Past tense or past participle: banned
Present participle: banning

• Any public announcement of a proposed marriage, either verbal or written, and made in a church or by church officials

• An official exclusion of a person from an organization, country, or activity
• Interdiction

[Informal] Denunciation or prohibition, as by public opinion

• [Archaic] Public censure or condemnation

[Historical] A public proclamation or edict, especially of outlawry

[Archaic] A curse

• Malediction
• Imprecation

[Law] A proclamation

• A public condemnation

[Ecclesiastical] A formal condemnation

• Excommunication

[Archaic] An obligation

• A summons to arms in feudal times
• Bond
• The body of vassals summoned

[South African] Under the former system of apartheid, to deprive a person of the right of free movement and association with others

[Currency] A monetary unit equal to 1/100 of the primary unit of currency, the leu, in Romania and Moldova ²

Father, you must forbid the banns!

Ask the bishop if he would waive the banns.

Talk to Mr Flittering about posting the banns.

In 1977 banns were abolished in Scotland.

A special license by the Archbishop of Canterbury allowed the couple to bypass the traditional reading of the banns and the marriage took place at St Lawrence’s Church, Longridge, a week later.

Without banns or a wedding ceremony, he took her for his wife merely by declaring the deed a fait accompli.

The license gave permission to marry after one asking of the banns, which were forbidden from Advent Sunday to 13 January.

These banns could easily involve parishes outside the diocese.

Today’s the last Sunday for Angela’s wedding banns.

Mother asked Charles if he wanted to announce the banns through our local Church.

Christ Church in Skipton read out the banns of marriage and no less than twelve couples were contemplating getting wed.

Print up invitations to a marriage, publish banns at a friendly church, have one or more brides or grooms, and even eat wedding cake.

Damn, I have a three-year driving ban.

Three bans were proposed these last two weeks.

The proposed ban on foreign correspondents was condemned by international leaders.

Officially, society has put a ban on racial discrimination, but it still happens.

Disobedient members were subject to the ban of the empire.

Their lives began under a ban it would take much to remove.

And if they laid you under a ban for adhering to me?

“Once enacted, the ban cannot be undone, even if the person has a change of heart,” Severns said.

On Feb. 2, 1990, the South African government lifted its ban on the ANC and many other opposition groups, as well as on a large number of individual antiapartheid activists.

The Presbyterians were under the ban of the law.

Lord McKinnon has summoned the ban.

The original cost charged was 50 bani per lamp.

Verb, transitive:
Their group bans all bombs!

Can you believe this book was banned!?

If the university president bans the fraternities, what will happen to Phi Beta Kappa?

Three major casinos in Las Vegas are banning George!

You know Anthony bans anyone from using Tony as a nickname!

All the bars now ban smoking.

And now the woman bans me from wearing me boots in the house!

1. Old English bannan meaning summon by a public proclamation, is of Germanic origin, and reinforced by the Old Norse banna meaning curse, prohibit; the noun is partly from the Old French ban meaning proclamation, summons, banishment.
2. Romanian coin of small worth is perhaps of Germanic origin and akin to Old High German ban, official proclamation, command (the original medieval Romanian coin being so called because coins were necessary to pay fines and feudal dues) and to the Old English bannan meaning to summon.