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bane

  (bān) pronunciation
n.
  1. Fatal injury or ruin: “Hath some fond lover tic'd thee to thy bane?” (George Herbert).
    1. A cause of harm, ruin, or death: “Obedience,/Bane of all genius, virtue, freedom, truth,/Makes slaves of men” (Percy Bysshe Shelley).
    2. A source of persistent annoyance or exasperation: “The spellings of foreign names are often the bane of busy copy editors” (Norm Goldstein).
  2. A deadly poison.

[Middle English, destroyer, from Old English bana.]


 
 
Thesaurus: bane

noun

  1. The act of destroying or state of being destroyed: destruction, devastation, havoc, ruin, ruination, undoing, wrack, wreck, wreckage. See help/harm/harmless, leftover.
  2. Anything that is injurious, destructive, or fatal: canker, contagion, poison, toxin, venom, virus. See help/harm/harmless.
  3. Something that causes total loss or severe impairment, as of one's health, fortune, honor, or hopes: destroyer, destruction, downfall, ruin, ruination, undoing, wrecker. See help/harm/harmless.
  4. A cause of suffering or harm: affliction, curse, evil, ill, plague, scourge, woe. See help/harm/harmless.

 
Antonyms: bane

n

Definition: cause of misery
Antonyms: advantage, blessing, fortune, good luck


 
Wikipedia: bane
For other uses of the word bane, see bane (disambiguation).

The meaning of bane as an English form of nemesis, the bringer of ruin, dates only from 1577. Now an affliction, curse, evil, ill, plague, scourge or woe, in Old English bana had a more specific and immediate meaning, of "slayer", "murderer." Possibly derived from nordic languages brought to britain by the Vikings, where "bane" (in swedish for example) means "something causing your death".

In the Middle Ages, a number of plants were thought to have poisonous or prophylactic qualities, which would have dire consequences (Henbane) or liminal ones, like "Wolfsbane" ("Aconite", Aconitum). Aconite is thoroughly poisonous, but no one would bait a wolf-trap with it. So its qualities as a "bane" must be protective, for the wolf is more dangerous than a mere ravening carnivore. Many medieval Europeans believed that they could become werewolves. Aconite was the toxic entheogen that could keep the dire transformation from happening. At a later date, milder poisoning was thought to trouble sheep in the U.S. southeast if they strayed into woodland and nibbled Kalmis latifolia, or "sheep's bane").


 

Dansk (Danish)
n. - ruin, ulykke

Nederlands (Dutch)
(oorzaak van) ondergang, vergif, vergiftigen

Français (French)
n. - fléau, peste, poison

Deutsch (German)
n. - Tod , Ruin

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - φαρμάκι, πηγή δεινών, συμφορά, κακό

Italiano (Italian)
sventura, veleno

Português (Portuguese)
n. - veneno (m), destruição (f)

Русский (Russian)
разрушение, гибель, бич Божий

Español (Spanish)
n. - perdición, ruina

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - fördärv, undergång, förbannelse, ruin

中文(简体) (Chinese (Simplified))
克星, 祸根, 毁灭, 灾害, 死亡

中文(繁體) (Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 剋星, 禍根, 毀滅, 災害, 死亡

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 독, 죽음

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 害毒, 災い

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) مصيبه, مجلبه الشقاء او الخراب‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮קללה, הרס, ארס‬


 
 

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Copyrights:

Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2007. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.  Read more
Thesaurus. Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary Copyright © 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.  Read more
Answers Corporation Antonyms. © 1999-2008 by Answers Corporation. All rights reserved.  Read more
Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Bane" Read more
Translations. Copyright © 2007, WizCom Technologies Ltd. All rights reserved.  Read more

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