The word “ban” (German Bann) has a wide range of meanings in both ecclesiastical and secular usage; here we exclude the ecclesiastical sense of Anathema. Essentially the word means a “command” or “order” in general. A ban was a command reinforced by a sanction: if it was not obeyed, the ban penalty (frequently called simply a ban) would be imposed.
1. Middle Ages
The ban as an authoritative command first appears in early medieval sources as a royal ban, and that was the focus of earlier studies [4. 121]. The structure a…