bane
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /beɪn/
rhymes: -eɪn
Forms: form: banes
Etymology: The noun is derived from Middle English bane (“person or thing that destroys life, murderer, slayer; person who destroys the soul; destruction of life, death, doom; poison”), from Old English bana (“person or thing that causes death, murderer”), from Proto-West Germanic *banō, from Proto-Germanic *banô (“killer, murderer, slayer; death, bane”), probably ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *gʷʰen- (“to slay, kill; to strike”).
The verb is derived from the noun.
cognates
* Gothic 𐌱𐌰𐌽𐌾𐌰 (banja, “wound”)
* Old Frisian bona (“death; murder”)
* Old Norse bani (Danish bane (“death; murder”), Icelandic bani (“bane, death”), Swedish bane (“death; murder”)), Old Norse ben (“(moral) wound”)
* Old English ben, benn (“mortal injury; wound”)
* Old High German bano (“death”) (Middle High German ban, bane)
* Old Saxon bano (“death; murder”), beni (“mortal injury; wound”)
Senses: examples: text: the bane of one’s existence
text: Money, thou bane of bliſſe, & ſourſe of vvo, / VVhence com'ſt thou, that thou art ſo freſh and fine? / I knovv thy parentage is baſe and lovv: / Man found thee poore and dirtie in a mine.
ref: [1633], George Herbert, “Avarice”, in [Nicholas Ferrar], editor, The Temple. Sacred Poems, and Private Ejaculations, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: […] Thomas Buck and Roger Daniel; and are to be sold by Francis Green, […], →OCLC, page 69:
text: This is the great bane and ſcandal of the Church, that ſuch Livings as more immediately belong to it ſhould be the vvorſt ſupplyed, […]
ref: 1673, Andrew Marvel[l], The Rehearsall Transpros’d: The Second Part. […], London: […] Nathaniel Ponder […], →OCLC, page 148:
text: All that I apprehend is, that dear Numps will be angry I have published these lines [of his poem]; not that he has any reason [to] be ashamed of them, but for fear of those rogues, the bane to all excellent performances, the imitators.
ref: 1709 May 11 (Gregorian calendar), Isaac Bickerstaff [et al., pseudonyms; Richard Steele], “Saturday, April 30, 1709”, in The Tatler, number 9; republished in [Richard Steele], editor, The Tatler, […], London stereotype edition, volume I, London: I. Walker and Co.; […], 1822, →OCLC, page 55:
text: She, who had been the bane of his life, blighting his hope, and awarding him, for love and domestic happiness, long mourning and cheerless solitude, he treated with the respect a good son might offer a kind mother.
ref: 1853 January, Currer Bell [pseudonym; Charlotte Brontë], “Malevola”, in Villette. […], volume III, London: Smith, Elder & Co., […], →OCLC, pages 143–144:
text: At Barking, previously the bane of L.T.S. operating staff, the new works have now simplified the working of traffic from four converging routes in the area.
ref: 1961 September, B. Perren, “The Tilbury Line Serves Industrial North Thameside”, in Modern Railways, Shepperton, Surrey: Ian Allan Publishing, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 556:
synonyms: affliction
curse
undoing
downfall
antonyms: boon
glosses: A cause of misery or ruin.
examples: text: For my part I would rather counſell you to deſtroy your Rattes and Miſe with Traps, Banes, or Weeſels: for beſides the ſluttiſhneſſe & lothſomeneſſe of the Catte (you know what ſhe layes in the Malt heape) ſhe is moſt daungerous and pernicious among children, as I mee ſelf haue had good experience.
ref: 1577, Conradus Heresbachius [i.e., Konrad Heresbach], compiler, “The Third Booke, of Feeding, Breeding, and Curing of Cattell”, in Barnabe Googe, transl., Fovre Bookes of Husbandry, […]: Conteyning the Whole Arte and Trade of Husbandry, with the Antiquitie, and Commendation thereof. […], London: […] Richard Watkins, →OCLC, folio 156, verso:
text: In dairie no cat, / Laie bane for a rat. / […] / Take heede how thou laieſt, the bane for the rats, / for poiſoning ſeruant, thy ſelfe and thy brats.
ref: 1580, Thomas Tusser, “Dairie”, in Fiue Hundred Pointes of Good Husbandrie: […], London: […] Henrie Denham [beeing the assigne of William Seres] […], →OCLC, stanza 6, folio 71, recto:
text: Take this (he gaue a folded cloth and to the bane therein / he mixed ſomewhat of his blood) this ſame (quoth he) ſhall win / To thee again the Husbands loue when he ſhall it eſtrange: / For out of doubt, I know it I, he takes delight in change.
ref: 1586, William Warner, “The Second Booke. Chapter VIII.”, in Albions England. Or Historicall Map of the Same Island: […], London: […] George Robinson [and R. Ward] for Thomas Cadman, […], →OCLC, page 29:
text: [H]e traueld through the vvatrie dreads, / For bane to poiſon his ſharpe arrovves heads, / That death, but toucht, cauſde; […]
ref: 1614–1615, Homer, “The First Booke of Homers Odysses”, in Geo[rge] Chapman, transl., Homer’s Odysses. […], London: […] Rich[ard] Field [and William Jaggard], for Nathaniell Butter, published 1615, →OCLC, page 10:
text: Thus am I doubly arm'd; my Death and Life, / My Bane and Antidote are both before me: […]
ref: 1712 (date written), [Joseph] Addison, Cato, a Tragedy. […], London: […] J[acob] Tonson, […], published 1713, →OCLC, Act V, scene i, page 57:
glosses: Chiefly in the names of poisonous plants or substances: a poison.
examples: text: Hath ſome fond lover tic'd [i.e., enticed] thee to thy bane? / And vvilt thou leave the Church, and love a ſtie?
ref: [1633], George Herbert, “The Forerunners”, in [Nicholas Ferrar], editor, The Temple. Sacred Poems, and Private Ejaculations, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: […] Thomas Buck and Roger Daniel; and are to be sold by Francis Green, […], →OCLC, page 171:
text: He finds out, soon enough for his weal and his bane, that he is stronger than Nature: and right tyrannously and irreverently he lords it over her, clearing, delving, dyking, building, without fear or shame.
ref: 1866, C[harles] Kingsley, “Prelude. Of the Fens.”, in Hereward the Wake, “Last of the English.” […], volume I, London; Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Macmillan and Co., →OCLC, page 4:
glosses: Misery, woe; also, doom, ruin; or physical injury, harm.
topics: biology
medicine
natural-sciences
pathology
sciences
veterinary
zoology
glosses: A disease of sheep in which breakdown of tissue occurs; rot.
examples: text: We haue alſo had experience yͭ the deſire of a kingdõe [kingdome] knoweth no kindred. The brother hath bene the brothers bane.
ref: c. 1513 (date written), Thomas More, “The History of King Richard the Thirde (Vnfinished) […]”, in Wyllyam Rastell [i.e., William Rastell], editor, The Workes of Sir Thomas More Knyght, […], London: […] Iohn Cawod, Iohn Waly, and Richarde Tottell, published 30 April 1557, →OCLC, page 51, column 2:
text: Let Rome her ſelfe bee bane vnto her ſelfe, / And ſhee vvhome mightie kingdomes curſie [curtsey] too, / Like a forlorne and deſperate caſt avvay, / Doe ſhamefull execution on her ſelfe.
ref: c. 1588–1593 (date written), [William Shakespeare], The Most Lamentable Romaine Tragedie of Titus Andronicus: […] (First Quarto), London: […] Iohn Danter, and are to be sold by Edward White & Thomas Millington, […], published 1594, →OCLC, [Act V, scene iii], signature K3, recto:
text: [T]he broad flaſhing skies / VVith brimſtone thick and clouds of fiery bain / Shall meet vvith raging Etna's and Veſuvius flame.
ref: 1647, Henry More, “Psychathanasia or The Second Part of the Song of the Soul, Treating of the Immortality of Souls, Especially Mans Soul. Democritus Platonissans, or An Essay upon the Infinity of Worlds out of Platonick Principles. […].”, in Philosophicall Poems, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: […] Roger Daniel, printer to the University, →OCLC, stanza 97, page 215:
text: Beside him lies the bane of his life,
dead from knife-wounds.
ref: 1999, Seamus Heaney, Beowulf, London: Faber and Faber, page 91:
glosses: A person or thing that causes death or destruction; a killer, a murderer, a slayer.
examples: text: I vvill not be affraid of Death and Bane, / Till Birnane Forreſt come to Dunſinane.
ref: c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene iii], page 149, column 2:
text: [I]f now again intoxicated and moaped with theſe royal, and therefore ſo delicious becauſe royal rudiments of bondage, the cup of deception, ſpiced and tempered to their bane, they ſhould deliver up themſelves to theſe glozing words and illuſions of him, vvhoſe rage and utmoſt violence they have ſuſtained, and overcome ſo nobly.
ref: 1650, [John Milton], “Intitled to the Prince of Wales”, in ΈΙΚΟΝΟΚΛΑΣΤΗΣ [Éikonoklastēs]. […], new (2nd) edition, London: […] G. Kearsly, […], published 1770, →OCLC, pages 272–273:
text: [A] great depopulation happened [due to the plague], at the Aſſiſes of Perſons of quality, and the tvvo Judges, Baron Yates, and Baron Rigby getting their banes there, died fevv dayes later.
ref: 1655, Thomas Fuller, “Section III. To Mrs. Anne Danvers of Chelsey.”, in The Church-history of Britain; […], London: […] Iohn Williams […], →OCLC, book IX, page 110:
text: Doctor [William] VVhitaker returning from Lambeth Conference, brought home vvith him the bane of his health, contracted there by hard and late ſtudying and vvatching in a very cold VVinter.
ref: 1655, Thomas Fuller, “Section VII”, in The History of the University of Cambridge, since the Conquest, [London]: [[…] Iohn Williams […]], →OCLC, paragraph 18, page 151:
glosses: Death; destruction; (countable) an instance of this.
Derived terms: sense: plants
taxonomic: Doronicum austriacum
word: Austrian leopard's bane
sense: plants
taxonomic: Actaea spp.
word: baneberry
sense: plants
word: banewort
sense: plants
word: bollan bane
sense: plants
word: bugbane
sense: plants
word: common dogbane
sense: plants
word: fly-trap dogbane
sense: plants
taxonomic: Apocynum androsaemifolium
word: spreading dogbane
sense: plants
word: counter-bane
sense: plants
word: cowbane
sense: plants
word: dogbane
sense: plants
word: dog bane
sense: plants
taxonomic: Coleus comosus
alt: syn. Plectranthus ornatus
word: dogs-bane
sense: plants
word: fleabane
sense: plants
word: flybane
sense: plants
word: fool-bane
sense: plants
word: foxbane
sense: plants
word: goat's-bane
sense: plants
word: goosebane
sense: plants
word: hare's-bane
sense: plants
word: hog's bane
sense: plants
word: horsebane
sense: plants
word: leopard's bane
sense: plants
english: Doronicum spp. et al.
translation: Doronicum spp. et al.
word: leopardsbane
sense: plants
word: libbard's bane
sense: plants
word: oxbane
sense: plants
word: panthersbane
sense: plants
word: ratsbane
sense: plants
word: sowbane
sense: plants
word: tippler's bane
sense: plants
word: wolfsbane
sense: plants
taxonomic: Aconitum spp.
word: wolf's bane
word: a boon and a bane
word: a boon or a bane
word: baneful
word: bane of someone's existence
word: bane of someone's life
word: boon and bane
word: boon or bane
word: embane