- contraband
- 1529, from M.Fr. contrebande "a smuggling," from It. contrabando, from L. contra "against" (see contra) + M.L. bannum, from Frank. *ban "a command" (see ban).
- ban (v.)
- O.E. bannan "to summon, command, proclaim," from P.Gmc. *bannan "proclaim, command, forbid" (cf. O.H.G. bannan "to command or forbid under threat of punishment," Ger. bannen "banish, expel, curse"), originally "to speak publicly," from PIE base *bha- "to speak" (cf. O.Ir. bann "law," Armenian ban "word;" see fame). Main modern sense of "to prohibit" is from O.N. cognate banna "curse, prohibit," and probably in part from O.Fr. ban, which meant "outlawry, banishment," among other things (see banal) and was a borrowing from Germanic. The sense evolution in Germanic was from "speak" to "proclaim a threat" to (in O.N., Ger., etc.) "curse." The Germanic root, borrowed in Latin and French, has been productive: cf. banish, bandit, contraband, etc. Banned in Boston dates from 1920s, in allusion to the excessive zeal and power of that city's Watch and Ward Society.