forbid

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English forbeden, later forbiden,^[2][3][4] inherited from Old English forbēodan (“to forbid, prohibit”),^[5][6][7][8] inherited from Proto-Germanic *furibeudaną.^[1] The Old English verb is formed from for- (“against”) and bēodan (“to command”), the source of bid,^[5][6][2][9] from Proto-Indo-European *bheudh- (“be aware, make aware”).^[5][7] The forms with -i- arose because the Middle English descendants of bēodan and biddan largely merged,^[3] so that Merriam-Webster calls forbidden an alteration of forbeden influenced by bidden (“to entreat, command”).^[10] It is a common Germanic compound,^[5][2] cognate with Old Frisian forbiada, Dutch verbieden, Old High German farbiotan, Middle High German verbieten, German verbieten, Old Norse fyrirbióða, Swedish förbjuda and Gothic 𐍆𐌰𐌿𐍂𐌱𐌹𐌿𐌳𐌰𐌽 (faurbiudan).^[5][6][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

To order that something shall not be done: Old English, about 725 in Genesis A according to Barnhart;^[2] the OED's first quotation is from the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle for 1048.^[6] Bosworth–Toller glosses it with Latin prohibere, vetare and interdicere.^[8]

Semantic evolution

The core meaning, to command someone not to do something, has not changed since Old English, but its constructions have: Old English put the person in the dative or accusative, and a construction with a negative clause died out by 1599.^[6] In Old English the verb also meant to refuse, a sense lost after 1483.^[6] The phrase God forbid is recorded from the early 13th century, in the Ancrene Riwle.^[6][5] Since Old English it has also meant to hinder or keep back, now chiefly of circumstances that make something impossible.^[6][11] The past participle forbid was used as an adjective, forbidden, from 1599 to 1662,^[6] and Merriam-Webster records it as archaic for "accursed";^[10] in Shakespeare's Macbeth the verb meant to lay under a curse, a use that lasted to 1819;^[6] a noun forbid, a prohibition, is found from 1602 to 1740.^[6][12] In Middle English the past tense was forbad and the past participle forbode;^[5] Chaucer used the verb 46 times, most often in the form forbede.^[13] Johnson (1755) gave the past tense forbade and the participle forbidden or forbid.^[14] Forbidden fruit goes back to Genesis 2:17,^[5] and Weekley dates the phrase to the 17th century and the current sense of forbidding, grim or threatening, to about 1700.^[15]

Timeline

• c. 725 – Old English forbēodan, in Genesis A.^[2]
• 1048 – to forbid someone something, in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle.^[6]
• c. 1175 – Middle English forbeden.^[2][6]
• c. 1225 – God forbid.^[6]
• c. 1425 – the form forbiden.^[2]
• 1599 – the adjective forbid, forbidden (obsolete by 1662).^[6]
• 1602 – noun, a prohibition (obsolete by 1740).^[6]
• before 1616 – to lay under a curse, in Shakespeare's Macbeth.^[6]

Meanings

Verb

1. To order someone not to do something; to prohibit: Her parents forbade her to drive at night.^[11][10][6]
2. To refuse to allow something, or to bar someone from a place: Smoking is forbidden on the platform.^[11][6]
3. To make impossible; to hinder or preclude: The steep slope forbids any building.^[11][6][16]
4. God forbid, heaven forbid: may it not happen.^[11][6]

Word family

• forbiddance
• forbidder
• forbidding

Related words

• bid
• forbode

Usage notes

Forms: the past tense is forbade or forbad, and the past participle forbidden, archaically forbid.^[11][10][12] Dictionary.com distinguishes it from its synonyms: forbid is the common word, usually for a direct personal command; prohibit is formal or legal, for a ban by official order; inhibit means to check an impulse; and taboo means to ban by social custom.^[16]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ 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)
4. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
8. ^ a b Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
9. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
11. ^ a b c d e f Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
12. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
13. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
14. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
15. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
16. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House