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banishment

/ˈbænɪʃmənt/
nounC2Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #12,792 of 15,258neutral

Banishment is being sent away and forbidden to return. Sentenced to banishment, years of banishment, lift the banishment.

It was a real legal penalty for centuries and in some societies a heavier one than death, since a person cut off from their people had no protection anywhere. Exile is the commoner word now, and it may be chosen rather than imposed.

Benjamin Haydon · Public domain

Definitions of banishment

  1. 1nounbanishmentBeing sent away and forbidden to return.C2

    “After his banishment, the prince was never allowed to return to his homeland.”

banishment is a punishment.

Where it comes from

  1. Proto-Indo-European

    *bʰeh₂-

  2. Proto-Germanic

    *bannaną — curse, forbid

  3. Old English

    bannan

  4. Old French

    baniss-

  5. Middle English

    banishen

  6. English

    banish

  7. English, today

    banishment

Built from

  • banir · Old French — to proclaim, ban, banish

From banish + -ment. banish comes from Middle English banishen, from Old French baniss-, extended stem of banir (“to proclaim, ban, banish”), of Germanic origin and Old English bannan, from Proto-Germanic bannaną (“curse, forbid”). Compare French bannir. a doublet of ban.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Word Building

Practise this word

banishment in the wild

  • In Roman law, exsilium denoted both voluntary exile and banishment as a capital punishment alternative to death.

    Exile

  • Cornelius was sent into exile and may have died from the rigours of his banishment; possibly he was beheaded.

    Pope Cornelius

  • The banishment was originally and most effectively applied to regular clergy, many of whom registered as parish priests to be treated as secular clergy and avoid deportation.

    Banishment Act 1697

  • Despite five books in which he bewails his fate copiously, the immediate cause of Augustus' banishment of the most acclaimed living Latin poet to Pontus remains a mystery.

    Tristia

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

Related words

the banir family

banishbanishment

banishment — used about once every 16,706 pages · #12,792 · point at the bar for the others