bane
Meanings
- A cause of misery or ruin.
- Chiefly in the names of poisonous plants or substances: a poison.
- Misery, woe; also, doom, ruin; or physical injury, harm.
- A disease of sheep in which breakdown of tissue occurs; rot.
- A person or thing that causes death or destruction; a killer, a murderer, a slayer.
- Death; destruction; (countable) an instance of this.
- To physically injure (someone or something); to harm, to hurt.
- To cause (someone) misery or ruin; to socially or spiritually injure (someone).
- To cause (sheep) a disease, especially the rot (“a disease in which breakdown of tissue occurs”).
- To kill (a person or animal), especially by poison.
- Alternative spelling of bone.
- A surname.
Pronunciation
Word forms
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Germanic *banô Proto-West Germanic *banō Old English bana Middle English bane English bane 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”)