Etymology: Common Germanic, Old English bęnd strong feminine (plural bęnda ) = Old Saxon bendi , Old Frisian bende , Middle Dutch bende , Gothic bandi < Germanic *bandjâ- , < band- , stem of bindan to bind v.; also in Old English strong masculine (plural bęndas ). This is the original English word, now superseded, except in nautical use, by the cognate band n.¹, bond n.¹, < Old Norse, the senses of which ran in Middle English alongside of those of bend, so as to make it appear only another phonetic variant of those. The Old English plural benda remained in Middle English as bende in collective sense of ‘bonds, imprisonment.’

Etymology: Apparently originally English, as a sense of bend n.¹: see the early quotations. But afterwards naturally identified with Old French bende (modern French bande ): see band n.²; whence the later sense-development. Now used only in the Heraldic and technical senses 3, 4 (if 4 really belongs here). The Old French bende, bande, corresponds to medieval Latin binda, benda, Lombard benda, Italian benda, banda, Spanish venda, banda, Portuguese venda, banda; pointing to a Romanic adoption of Old High German bindâ, ‘band, fillet, tie, sash,’ and also of Gothic bandi or other equivalent of Old English bend, with similar sense.

Etymology: Late 15th cent. bende , < French bende, another (? earlier) form of French bande (corresponding to Italian banda , Spanish banda , Portuguese banda ) ‘an organized company of men,’ a band n.¹ Both forms, bende and bande , appear to have been introduced from French by Caxton (see band n.³); but bende was by far the more frequent form till late in the 16th cent., being always used by Ld. Berners, Sir T. More, Grafton, etc., though band(e, alone appears in the versions of the Bible (Tyndale and Coverdale have bonde in John xviii. 3, where the later versions have bande; but the word is not frequent in any form before the Geneva version of 1557). Bend is rare after 1600; the Shakespeare folio of 1623 has always band. The sense of ‘faction, party,’ is assigned also by Cotgrave to French bande, and by Minsheu to Spanish banda.

Etymology: A late derivative of bend v., appearing in the 16th cent.

Etymology: Old English bęndan, probably identical with Old Norse benda ‘to join, strain, strive, bend.’ (The rare Middle High German benden ‘to fetter’ is perhaps of independent formation.) Germanic *bandjan, < bandjâ- ‘string, band,’ in Old English bęnd. In Old English used only in the senses ‘to restrain with a bond, fetter, confine,’ and ‘to bend a bow,’ originally ‘to hold in restraint or confine with the string.’ From the latter by transference of the word to the bowed or curved condition of a bent bow, came the now main sense of ‘to bow, curve, or crook.’ Compare the partly parallel history of French bander, Old French bender (= Provençal bendar, Italian bendare, bandare, Spanish vendar, bandar, Portuguese vendar, bandar).