bane

Etymology 1

From Middle English bane, from Old English bana, from Proto-Germanic *banô (compare Old High German bano (“death”), Icelandic bani (“bane, death”)), from Proto-Indo-European *gʷʰon-on-, from the o-grade of *gʷʰen- (“to strike, to kill”).

noun

1. A cause of misery or death.
   the bane of one's existence
   At Barking, previously the bane of L.T.S. operating staff, the new works have now simplified the working of traffic from four converging routes in the area. 1961 September, B. Perren, “The Tilbury Line serves industrial North Thameside”, in Modern Railways, page 556
2. (dated) Poison, especially any of several poisonous plants.
3. (obsolete) A killer, murderer, slayer.
4. (obsolete) Destruction; death.
5. A disease of sheep.

verb

1. (transitive) To kill, especially by poison; to be the poison of.
2. (transitive) To be the bane of.

Etymology 2

From Middle English ban (northern dialect), from Old English bān.

noun

1. (chiefly Scotland) Bone.
   The fire will burn thee to the bare bane. 1686, "Lyke-Wake Dirge" as printed in The Oxford Book of English Verse (1900) p. 361