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ban·ner (bănər)
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n.
1.
a. A piece of cloth attached to a staff and used as a standard by a monarch, military commander, or knight.
b. The flag of a nation, state, or army.
2. A piece of cloth bearing a motto or legend, as of a club.
3.
a. A headline spanning the width of a newspaper page.
b. A rectangular space with text or graphics, especially an advertisement, running across the top of a webpage or other online document.
4. Botany See standard.
adj.
Unusually good; outstanding: a banner year for the company.
tr.v. ban·nered, ban·ner·ing, ban·ners
1. To supply with banners.
2. To give a banner headline to (a story or item) in a newspaper.
[Middle English banere, from Old French baniere, from Vulgar Latin *bandāria, from Late Latin bandum, of Germanic origin; see bhā-1 in the Appendix of Indo-European roots.]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition copyright ©2022 by HarperCollins Publishers. All rights reserved.
 

Indo-European & Semitic Roots Appendices

    Thousands of entries in the dictionary include etymologies that trace their origins back to reconstructed proto-languages. You can obtain more information about these forms in our online appendices:

    Indo-European Roots

    Semitic Roots

    The Indo-European appendix covers nearly half of the Indo-European roots that have left their mark on English words. A more complete treatment of Indo-European roots and the English words derived from them is available in our Dictionary of Indo-European Roots.

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