721: banal and ban Nov 28, 2016

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What do movies lacking suspense, the draft, and censored books have in common? The answer to that question is that nobody really likes any of that stuff, and also the word, 'banal'. Until the mid 1700's, this referenced feudal service that was compulsory, originally from the French, 'ban' meaning, ‘a proclamation or call to arms’; it was this sense of common duty that eventually took on the meaning of, ‘common to all’. You might think that 'ban' also comes directly from this French word, but actually it's from an Old English word, 'bannan', which means ‘summon by a public proclamation’, which was reinforced by both the Old Norse 'banna' which translates to ‘curse, prohibit’, and later the French, 'ban'. Today, 'banal' has changed from meaning a call to arms to meaning anything without originality.

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