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• contraband •

Pronunciation: kahn-trê-bænd • Hear it!

Part of Speech: Noun

Meaning: 1. Smuggled goods, goods legally or otherwise prohibited from importation. 2. Smuggling, traffic in illegal goods. 3. Before the Civil War, a fugitive or captured slave.

Notes: This word is closely associated with smuggling: that which is smuggled is contraband. Several attempts have been made to replace smuggle with words made out of contraband, contrabandery, contrabandage, and contrabandism, but none of them stuck. Contrabandist, as an alternative for smuggler, did stick.

In Play: This word usually assumes some sort of smuggling: "Prohibition didn't prevent smugglers bringing a rich assortment of contraband liquors from Canada." The smuggling isn't necessarily the illegal kind: "Billy hid his contraband of girlie magazines under the contents of his sock drawer."

Word History: Today's Good word was originally an Old Italian word that English filched: contrabando "smuggling" (Modern Italian contrabbando), from Medieval Latin contrabannum, comprising contra "against" + bannum "proclamation, promulgation". Contra came from PIE kom "by, (together) with, beside" + -tero a comparative adjective suffix. Only Latin contains this combination, so it is purely Latin. Bannum was borrowed from Old High German bannan "to command, forbid" (Modern German bannen "to avert, exorcise"), based on PIE bha- "to speak, tell, say", also underlying Sanskrit bhanati "speaks", Greek pheme "speech" and phone "voice, sound", Latin fari "to say", fabula "tale, story", and fama "talk, reputation", Russian basnya "fable", Serbian basna "fable", Czech and Polish bajka "fable", and English ban and banish. (Now we owe an e-ovation for newcomer Diane McGuire for suggesting today's most fascinating Good Word.)