18 January 2015

bane

[beyn]

noun
1. a person or thing that ruins or spoils:
Gambling was the bane of his existence.
2. a deadly poison (often used in combination, as in the names of poisonous plants):
wolfsbane; henbane.
3. death; destruction; ruin.
4. Obsolete. that which causes death or destroys life:
entrapped and drowned beneath the watery bane.

Origin
Middle English, Old English
1000, before 1000; Middle English; Old English bana slayer; cognate with Old Norse bani death, murderer, Old Frisian bona murder, Old Saxon bano murderer, Old High German bano slayer, bana death; akin to Old English benn, Gothic banja wound

Dictionary.com

Examples from the web for bane
– Blisters are the bane of house painters, both pros and amateurs.
– Spam is the bane of computer users everywhere, accounting for more than 90% of e-mail.
– Endless replays can be the bane of any telecast.

Anagram

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Today’s aphorism

The cost of liberty is less than the price of repression.

– W. E. B. Du Bois

On this day

18 January 1977 – The Granville Rail Disaster, in which a crowded commuter train derailed and collided with an overpass that collapsed onto it, killing 83 people and injuring more than 210.

18 January 1779 – birth of Peter Roget, British lexographer and creator of Roget’s Thesaurus. (died 12 September 1869).

18 January 1904 – birthday of Cary Grant, born Archibald Alexander Leach, actor (‘North by Northwest‘, ‘To Catch a Thief‘, ‘An Affair to Remember‘, ‘Gunga Din‘).