Officially forbids something or prohibits someone from doing something.
From Old English 'bannan,' related to Germanic and Old Norse words meaning 'to summon' or 'to proclaim.' Over time, the meaning shifted to mean 'to proclaim as forbidden,' becoming a legal/governmental term.
The word 'ban' was historically about public proclamation—a town crier would 'ban' something by announcing it was forbidden—so modern 'shadow bans' on social media are ironically invisible, the opposite of the original meaning.
Complete word intelligence in one call. Free tier — 50 lookups/day.