bane
noun

- a cause of continuous trouble or unhappiness

- a cause of great distress or annoyance

- a source of harm or ruin

Oxford Languages / Cambridge Dictionary / Merriam-Webster

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WORD ORIGIN

“Bane” stems from the Old English bana meaning “killer, slayer, murderer, a worker of death” and Old High German bana “death, destruction”. The sense of “that which causes ruin, trouble, or irritation” is from the 1570s.

Notwithstanding negative origins, we often use the phrase “The bane of my life” affectionately, as in: “That cat is the bane of my life, but I love her dearly.”

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THE BANES OF OUR LIFE

In an article on Zippia dot com, Sky Ariella lists “70 Things That Practically Everyone Finds Annoying”... below are 10. How many of these annoy you?

1. Not signalling before turning

2. Looking at smartphone while someone is talking

3. Talking to someone wearing earphones

4. Texting during a movie

5. Slow internet

6. Waiting for elevators

7. Scraping a plate with a knife or fork

8. Loud chewing or drinking

9. The cracking of knuckles

10. Hot food served on cold plates

Wanda Sykes was once asked to name her biggest annoyance: “You know what?” she replied, “Everything annoys me. So I drink!”

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SYNONYMS

- something that is personally annoying:

aggravation, aggro, agitation, anathema, annoyance, BANE, botheration, bugbear, burden, cross to bear, exasperation, frustration, gadfly, gripe, hair shirt, hang-up, infliction, infuriation, irksomeness, irritant, irritation, molestation, nuisance, pain in the backside (the behind, the bum, the neck, the rear), peeve, personal hate (vexation), pester, pesterer, pet aversion (hate), pet peeve, source of aggravation (annoyance, disruption, irritation, vexation), THE BANE OF ONE'S LIFE, thorn in one’s side, torment, trials and tribulations, tribulation, vexation

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SMUGGLE OWAD into an English conversation, say something like:

“Slow internet was the BANE of my life, but now I welcome it... I use the waiting time to practice muscle training. So what's the BANE of your life?”

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HERZLICHEN DANK to all readers helping me keep OWAD alive with single or monthly donations at:

https://donorbox.org/please-become-a-friend-of-owad-3

and,

Paul Smith, IBAN: DE75 7316 0000 0002 5477 40