bannal

English

Etymology 1

Adjective

bannal (comparative more bannal, superlative most bannal)

1. Uncommon form of banal.
   • 1979, S.A.C. du Plessis, “Seigneurialism or manorialism”, in Kleio, volume 11, numbers 11–12, Taylor & Francis, →DOI, →ISSN, page 32:

     As feudalism in England never took the extreme centrifugal form of continental feudalism because it was, to a great extent, under the control of the crown, and as the king retained most of the powers of the ban in his own hands, there was never the opportunity for bannal lordships to develop in England.

   • 1980, Elizabeth M[ary] Hallam, Capetian France: 987–1328, London, New York, N.Y.: Longman, →ISBN, page 13:

     In a bannal lordship the local seigneur, whether a castellan or a monastery, wielded a powerful and independent economic, judicial and fiscal authority over his men.

   • 1997, Thomas Ertman, Birth of the Leviathan: Building States and Regimes in Medieval and Early Modern Europe, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 274:

     The lords also quickly succeeded in extending their seigneurial jurisdiction over these dependents for all but the most serious crimes—just as the bannal lords of France had done three centuries earlier—thereby removing much of the county population from the direct judicial authority of the count and, indirectly, of the king.

   • 2003 February, Jonathan Lethem, “The Disappointment Artist”, in Harper's Magazine, volume 306, number 1833, New York, N.Y.: Harper's Magazine Foundation, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 50:

     This man, an intellectual Alexander King—in both looks and attitude—bitter, bitter sweet (and I don't use the term intellectual in the bannal method of today) has verbally crucified every member of the class who dared open his mouth—and to read a work of ones own! Sheer folly.

Usage notes

• The spelling with two Ns is closer to the word's etymon Latin bannus (“jurisdiction”). This form is chiefly used in the word banal's original sense of "relating to a type of feudal jurisdiction or service."

References

• “banal, adj.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.

Etymology 2

From Cornish banadhel (“broom”).

Noun

bannal (plural bannals)

1. (dialectal, rare) Synonym of common broom (“Cytisus scoparius”)
   • 1930, Edgar Thurston, British & Foreign Trees and Shrubs in Cornwall:

     Cytisus scoparius Link. Common Broom; Bannal. Native. "Common in most of the districts, but becoming rarer as the Lizard and Land's End are approached. Cornish people hold that there are male and female Bannals, or, as it is locally expressed, He Bannals and She Bannals.