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Webster 1913 Edition

Banyan

Ban′yan

(băn′yan or băn-yăn′)
,
Noun.
[See
Banian
.]
(Bot.)
A tree of the same genus as the common fig, and called the Indian fig (
Ficus Indica
), whose branches send shoots to the ground, which take root and become additional trunks, until it may be the tree covers some acres of ground and is able to shelter thousands of men.

Definition 2024

banyan

banyan

See also: banyán and bànyǎn

English

Ficus bengalensis

Wikispecies

Alternative forms

Noun

banyan ‎(plural banyans)

  1. An Indian trader, merchant, cashier, or money changer.
  2. A tropical Indian fig tree, Ficus benghalensis, that has many aerial roots.
    • 1914, Teresa Frances & William Rose Benét, The East I Know, translation of original by Paul Claudel, page 33:
      We climb and then descend; we pass by the great banyan which, like Atlas, settling himself powerfully on his contorted haunches, seems awaiting with knee and shoulder the burden of the sky.
  3. A type of loose gown worn in India.

Synonyms

  • (tropical Indian fig tree): banyan tree

Translations

References

  1. ↑ Yule, Henry, Sir. Hobson-Jobson (1903) A glossary of colloquial Anglo-Indian words and phrases, and of kindred terms, etymological, historical, geographical and discursive., London: J. Murray

See also

Etymology

From Portuguese baniano, from Arabic بنيان, from Gujarati વાણિયો ‎(vāṇiyo, “merchant”), from Sanskrit वाणिज ‎(vāṇijá), from earlier वणिज् ‎(vaṇíj, “merchant, trader”). The name appears to have been first bestowed popularly on a famous tree of this species growing near Bandar Abbas, under which the Bannians or Hindu traders settled at that port, had built a little pagoda.[1]

Pronunciation

  • (UK, US) IPA(key): /ˈbæn.jən/

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