banns

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a public announcement, traditionally made in church, of an intended marriage

   The banns were read on three Sundays before the wedding.

Simplified etymology

Banns dates from Middle English. The marriage banns read in church derive from the “proclamation” sense of ban, a Germanic word that also passed into French.

From Middle English banes or banns, the plural of ban, 'an authoritative proclamation.' Ban came partly through Anglo-French from a Germanic word for a formal command or summons. The marriage term remains plural in ordinary use.

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