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Webster 1913 Edition


Banana

Ba-na′na

(bȧ-nä′nȧ; 277)
,
Noun.
[Sp.
banana
, name of the fruit.]
(Bot.)
A perennial herbaceous plant of almost treelike size (
Musa sapientum
); also, its edible fruit. See
Musa
.
☞ The banana has a soft, herbaceous stalk, with leaves of great length and breadth. The flowers grow in bunches, covered with a sheath of a green or purple color; the fruit is five or six inches long, and over an inch in diameter; the pulp is soft, and of a luscious taste, and is eaten either raw or cooked. This plant is a native of tropical countries, and furnishes an important article of food.
Banana bird
(Zool.)
,
a small American bird (
Icterus leucopteryx
), which feeds on the banana.
Banana quit
(Zool.)
,
a small bird of tropical America, of the genus
Certhiola
, allied to the creepers.

Webster 1828 Edition


Banana

BAN'ANA

,
Noun.
A species of the genus Musa, or plantain tree, and its fruit. It rises 15 or 20 feet high, with a soft stalk, marked with dark purple stripes and spots,with leaves six feet long, and a foot broad. The flowers grow in bunches, covered with a sheath of a fine purple color.
The fruit is four or five inches long, and an inch or more in diameter; the pulp soft and of a luscious taste. When ripe, it is eaten raw, or fried in slices. Bananas grow in large bunches weighing a dozen pounds or more. This tree is the native of tropical countries, and on many isles, constitutes an important article of food.

Definition 2024


banana

banana

See also: BANANA, banána, banāna, banānā, banană, and Appendix:Variations of "banana"

English

Four different types of bananas. The larger yellow bananas on the far right are commercially dominant Cavendish bananas.

Noun

banana (countable and uncountable, plural bananas)

  1. An elongated curved tropical fruit that grows in bunches and has a creamy flesh and a smooth skin.
    1. (US, Canada, and Europe) Especially, the sweet, yellow fruit of the Cavendish banana cultivar.
  2. The tropical tree-like plant which bears clusters of bananas. The plant, usually of the genus Musa but sometimes also including plants from Ensete, has large, elongated leaves and is related to the plantain.
  3. (uncountable) A yellow colour, like that of a banana's skin.
    Pantone banana colour:    
  4. (mildly pejorative, slang, ethnic slur) A person of Asian descent, especially a Chinese American, who has assimilated into Western culture or married a Caucasian (from the "yellow" outside and "white" inside). Compare coconut (assimilated Hispanic or Black) or Oreo (Black person who is "black outside" and "white inside").
  5. (nuclear physics) banana equivalent dose

Synonyms

Antonyms

  • (Asian assimilated into Western culture): egg (Western assimilated into Asian culture)

Coordinate terms

  • (Asian assimilated into Western culture): coconut

Derived terms

Translations

Adjective

banana (not comparable)

  1. Curved like a banana, especially of a ball in flight.
    • 2001, Rayne Barton, The Green Hills Golf Chronicles, page 155, ISBN 0738847917.
      Even the lowly banana ball, the bane of so many weekenders, sometimes can be exactly right, as in this case.
    • 2002, Andrew Collins, Guild of Honor, page 53, ISBN 1403371490.
      He played the fading, low-banana shot as planned, and the ball whistled left of the oak tree and between the pines.
    • 2006, Richard Witzig, The Global Art of Soccer, page 247, ISBN 0977668800.
      [...]Bernd Schneider closed the scoring in injury-time with a 23 meter free-kick banana shot into the upper-right corner.

See also

Hypernyms

  • bunch
  • hand
  • Appendix:English collective nouns

Asturian

Noun

banana f (plural bananes)

  1. banana (fruit)

Synonyms


Catalan

Noun

banana f (plural bananes)

  1. banana (fruit)

Synonyms


Cornish

Pronunciation

  • (Revived Middle Cornish) IPA(key): [baˈnaːna]
  • (Revived Late Cornish) IPA(key): [bəˈnæːnɐ]

Noun

banana m (plural bananas)

  1. banana

Mutation


French

Verb

banana

  1. third-person singular past historic of bananer

Galician

Noun

banana f (plural bananas)

  1. banana (fruit)

Synonyms

Related terms


Icelandic

Noun

banana

  1. definite accusative plural of bani

Irish

Etymology

From Wolof banaana.

Noun

banana m (genitive singular banana, nominative plural bananaí)

  1. banana

Declension

Mutation

Irish mutation
Radical Lenition Eclipsis
banana bhanana mbanana
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every
possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.

Italian

Noun

banana f (plural banane)

  1. banana (fruit)

Noun

banana m (invariable)

  1. banana (color)

Adjective

banana (invariable)

  1. banana

Related terms


Japanese

Romanization

banana

  1. rōmaji reading of バナナ

Lower Sorbian

Etymology

From Wolof banaana.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /baˈnana/

Noun

banana f

  1. banana

Declension

References

  • banana in Manfred Starosta (1999): Dolnoserbsko-nimski słownik / Niedersorbisch-deutsches Wörterbuch. Bautzen: Domowina-Verlag.

Maltese

Noun

banana f

  1. banana

Portuguese

bananas

Etymology

Uncertain. Possibly from Wolof banaana (banana) or Arabic بَنَان (banān, fingertip, banana).

Pronunciation

Noun

banana f (plural bananas)

  1. banana (fruit)
    Bananas são ricas em potássio - Bananas are high in potassium
  2. banana (plant)
  3. (pejorative, slang) wimp (a weak or inconfident person)
    Aquele rapaz é um banana! - That guy is a wimp!
  4. (informal) ****

Synonyms


Romanian

Noun

banana f

  1. definite singular nominative and accusative form of banană.

Serbo-Croatian

Etymology

From Spanish, from Portuguese, from Wolof banaana.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /banǎːna/
  • Hyphenation: ba‧na‧na

Noun

banána f (Cyrillic spelling бана́на)

  1. banana

Declension

References

  • banana” in Hrvatski jezični portal

Spanish

Noun

banana f (plural bananas)

  1. banana (fruit)

Synonyms

Related terms

See also


Tok Pisin

Etymology

From English banana

Noun

banana

  1. banana
    • 1995, John Verhaar, Toward a reference grammar of Tok Pisin: an experiment in corpus linguistics, ISBN 0-8248-1672-2, page 433:
      Mekim olsem pinis, orait tupela i planim taro na banana, na kumu, painap, kon, tomato, na kaukau tu.
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Welsh

Etymology

From English banana, from Wolof banaana.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /baˈnana/

Noun

banana f (plural bananas)

  1. banana

Synonyms

Mutation

Welsh mutation
radical soft nasal aspirate
banana fanana manana unchanged
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every
possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.