ban

Forms

bān n (nominative plural bān) (strong a-stem)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-West Germanic *bain, from Proto-Germanic *bainą (“bone, leg”).^[1][2] The noun is shared by Old Frisian bēn, Old Saxon bēn, Old High German bein and Old Norse bein; in the continental and Norse languages it also means “leg”.^[3][4][5] It has no Gothic counterpart and no certain cognate outside Germanic.^[5]

Its origin is disputed.^[4][1] De Vries thinks it best to connect it with the Old Norse adjective beinn (“straight”), so that it first meant the straight bones of the leg, a view Holthausen also puts as a question; but the adjective is only North Germanic.^[4][3] Köbler and Orel, as reported by Wiktionary, derive it from Proto-Indo-European *bʰeyh₂- (“to strike”), as “a striking object”;^[6][1] Kroonen tentatively derives it from Proto-Indo-European *bʰeh₂- (“to shine”), through “straight beam”.^[6][1] De Vries calls the comparisons with words for “knock, strike” in Latin, Slavic and Irish unlikely.^[4]

Proto-Germanic /ai/ appears as ⟨ā⟩ in Old English, as in stān and brād.^[7] It is a neuter a-stem with an endingless nominative and accusative plural.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The word is first recorded in the gloss of the Vespasian Psalter, added in the mid-ninth century: gedroefed sindun all ban min “all my bones are troubled” renders “conturbata sunt omnia ossa mea” of Psalm 6.^[8][9] The Pastoral Care in the Hatton manuscript (890×897) contrasts the soft flesh with ða ban.^[10][9] The laws of Æthelberht name fines for a broken bone (banes), but they survive only in a twelfth-century copy.^[11][9]

Semantic evolution

Bosworth and Toller separate bone as a substance from a single bone; it glosses Latin “os”.^[12][13][6] The substance sense covers ivory and whalebone: in the Orosius the walruses are hunted for the fine bone of their teeth, and the tribute is paid on hwales bane.^[13][14] Poetry uses it for other hard matter, the dragon's hide on which the sword fails in Beowulf and the ice of a riddle.^[13][15] Sweet notes the sense “leg” only in compounds.^[14]

It lived on as Middle English bon and English bone, which kept the meaning “bone” where the continental cognates came to mean the leg.^[16][5]

Timeline

• s. ix med. – all ban min “all my bones” in the Vespasian Psalter gloss.^[8][9]
• 890×897 – ða ban “the bones” in the Pastoral Care (Hatton 20).^[10][9]
• s. x¹ – walrus ivory, æðele ban on hiora toðum, in the Orosius.^[17][9]
• s. x/xi – the sword fails on bāne on the dragon in Beowulf.^[18][15]
• ?a1200 – Middle English ban in the Peri Didaxeon.^[16]

Meanings

Noun

1. bone as a substance.^[12][6]
2. a bone of the body, or of a limb.^[13][19]
3. ivory, a tusk; whalebone.^[19][14][1]
4. (poetic) other hard matter: a dragon's hide, ice.^[13]

Word family

• bāncofa
• bānfæt
• bānhūs
• bānlēas
• brēostbān
• ċinbān
• hryċġbān
• sċinbān
• hypebān
• lendenbān

Descendants

• Middle English bon (→ English bone; Scots bane)^[1]

Related words

• bǣnen

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. *bainą
3. ^ a b Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 16
4. ^ a b c d de Vries, Jan (1977), Altnordisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 2nd ed., Leiden: Brill, p. 30
5. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. bān
7. ^ Campbell, A. (1959), Old English Grammar, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. § 134
8. ^ a b Gneuss, Helmut; Lapidge, Michael (2014), Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts: A Bibliographical Handlist of Manuscripts and Manuscript Fragments Written or Owned in England up to 1100, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, p. 329
9. ^ a b c d e f Healey, Antonette diPaolo; Price Wilkin, John; Xiang, Xin, eds. (2009), Dictionary of Old English Web Corpus, Toronto: Dictionary of Old English Project
10. ^ a b Gneuss, Helmut; Lapidge, Michael (2014), Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts: A Bibliographical Handlist of Manuscripts and Manuscript Fragments Written or Owned in England up to 1100, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, p. 499
11. ^ Liebermann, F. (1906), Die Gesetze der Angelsachsen, vol. II.1: Wörterbuch, Halle: Niemeyer, p. 19
12. ^ a b Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. 67
13. ^ a b c d e Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. Suppl. 62
14. ^ a b c Sweet, Henry (1896), The Student's Dictionary of Anglo-Saxon, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 39
15. ^ a b Fulk, R. D.; Bjork, Robert E.; Niles, John D., eds. (2008), Klaeber's Beowulf and The Fight at Finnsburg, 4th ed., Toronto: University of Toronto Press (glossary), p. s.v. bān
16. ^ a b Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
17. ^ Gneuss, Helmut; Lapidge, Michael (2014), Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts: A Bibliographical Handlist of Manuscripts and Manuscript Fragments Written or Owned in England up to 1100, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, p. 249
18. ^ Gneuss, Helmut; Lapidge, Michael (2014), Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts: A Bibliographical Handlist of Manuscripts and Manuscript Fragments Written or Owned in England up to 1100, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, p. 344
19. ^ a b Clark Hall, J. R. (1960), A Concise Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, 4th ed., with a supplement by H. D. Meritt, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 33