banishment

Etymology

It is formed from English banish + -ment.^[1][2][3] The verb is from Old French baniss-, the lengthened stem of banir (“to proclaim; to banish”),^[1][2][4][3] now bannir.^[1][2] The French verb is of Germanic origin,^[5][6][7] perhaps from Frankish *bannjan (“to order or prohibit under penalty”),^[2][8][9] from Proto-Germanic *bannan,^[2] and may have come by way of Medieval Latin bannīō (“to proclaim”), from bannum (“proclamation”).^[2][3][1] It is thus related to ban.^[2][1][10] Johnson compared French bannissement.^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

The official expulsion of someone from the country, or the state of exile: 1507.^[1][3] Etymonline says about 1500, and notes the earlier noun banishing, from the mid-15th century.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The word followed the verb from a legal sentence to any forced removal: in the Coverdale Bible of 1535 it already means sending away or an enforced absence in general.^[1] Johnson (1755) distinguished the act of banishing someone from the state of being banished, quoting Shakespeare's "To liberty, and not to banishment" in As You Like It.^[11] Merriam-Webster also records it for exclusion from a group or class, and for simply discarding a thing.^[7]

Timeline

• mid-15th century – the earlier noun banishing.^[2]
• 1507 – official expulsion from the country; exile.^[1][3]
• 1535 – a sending away; an enforced absence.^[1]

Meanings

Noun

1. Official expulsion from a country, usually as a punishment: The council punished the rebels with banishment.^[7][1]
2. The state of being banished; exile: He spent ten years in banishment.^[1][11]
3. Exclusion or dismissal from a place or group, by some authority or by one's own choice: her banishment from the tennis club.^[7][1]
4. The casting off or discarding of something.^[7]

Related words

• banish
• ban
• bandit

Usage notes

The Century Dictionary, quoted by Etymonline, says that the verb banish stresses being forced by an authority to leave, and removal to a distance, while exile stresses leaving home and can be reflexive.^[2]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
6. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
7. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
9. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
10. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ a b c Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.