BANE

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BANE

Postby Dr. Goodword » Thu Nov 02, 2006 9:33 pm

• bane •

Pronunciation: bayn • Hear it!

Part of Speech: Noun

Meaning: 1. Death or a cause of death, such as poison. 2. A cause of ruin or destruction, usually in the figurative sense.

Notes: Today's word is a virtual antonym of boon "a great benefit, windfall", coincidentally spelled with the same consonants, making it easy to remember. Bane has an adjective, baneful replete with an adverb, banefully, nothing else.

In Play: Bane is most often used hyperbolically these days—as is boon: "My children can be the bane of my life or the boon of my existence but seldom are they anything in between." (Know the feeling?) However, the sense of a cause of real destruction is still available in this word: "Unlike the good old days, when the press often looked the other way, the slightest scandal in Washington now is the bane of a political career."

Word History: Today's word has changed quite a bit since Old English, when it was bana "destroyer, slayer". It is related to Danish bane "death, murder" but also "path, road", like German bahn "highway" (the connection predates the German highway without speed limits, the Autobahn). These two seemingly unrelated meanings probably come from a day when a path or road was seen as a place through the forest chopped or cut clear by blows of axes, since the ancestor of bane and Bahn apparently meant "to hit, strike".
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Stargzer
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Postby Stargzer » Sun Nov 05, 2006 10:42 pm

Bane appears as a suffix or combining form in words such as bugbane,cowbane, dogbane, fleabane, henbane, leopard's bane, wolfsbane, and a host of others.

Does this mean that Brisbane is deadly to moels?
Regards//Larry

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Perry
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Postby Perry » Mon Nov 06, 2006 12:39 pm

Bane appears as a suffix or combining form in words such as bugbane,cowbane, dogbane, fleabane, henbane, leopard's bane, wolfsbane, and a host of others.

Does this mean that Brisbane is deadly to moels?
That's mohels. And no remarks about working for tips. :roll:
"Time is nature's way of keeping everything from happening all at once. Lately it hasn't been working."
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Stargzer
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Postby Stargzer » Tue Nov 07, 2006 12:49 am

. . . That's mohels. And no remarks about working for tips. :roll:
Mohel, schmohel. Mohel, Moel, and Mo'el are all variant spellings that I've seen. I went for the similarity between Moel and Mole (I've got moles in my front yard but no mohels). Remember the mohel that shaved the rednecks' heads in Porky's? :lol:
Regards//Larry

"To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms, and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them."
-- Attributed to Richard Henry Lee

Bailey
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Postby Bailey » Tue Nov 07, 2006 1:05 am

I have moles and mohels in my yard They've actually made mountains out of their mohels.

mark at-war Bailey

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kb









Huny
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Postby Huny » Wed Nov 08, 2006 1:20 am

I have moles and mohels in my yard They've actually made mountains out of their mohels.

mark at-war Bailey
Maybe if you gave some of Geezer's wolfsbane to the moles they would go away :wink: --oh, that's right, wolfsbane is for vampires and warewolves and such... where's my head???

Huny one-should-never-do-whichcraft-with-such-poisonous-plants :shock:
"What lies behind us and what lies ahead of us are tiny matters compaired to what lies inside us." R.W.E.

Perry
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Postby Perry » Wed Nov 08, 2006 10:21 am

When the Alpha Agora logged me off with every move, my usually joyful visits became the bane of my existence. Looks like everything is copacetic now.
"Time is nature's way of keeping everything from happening all at once. Lately it hasn't been working."
Anonymous

Bailey
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Postby Bailey » Wed Nov 08, 2006 11:31 am

I have moles and mohels in my yard They've actually made mountains out of their mohels.

mark at-war Bailey
Maybe if you gave some of Geezer's wolfsbane to the moles they would go away :wink: --oh, that's right, wolfsbane is for vampires and warewolves and such... where's my head???

Huny
Actually I will purchase some powered Fox urine to scare the little boogers away. Not that I wouldn't prefer to have them dead. But gone is awesome too. I actually do not want to scare off wolves but make it appear that wolves are around and hunting moles.

mark moles-are-not-cute-neither-are-their-mohels Bailey

Today is the first day of the rest of your life, Make the most of it...
kb










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