English

Noun

beaner ‎(plural beaners)

1. (US, ethnic slur, offensive) A Latino.
   • 1999 November 14, Gregory Alan Norton, There Ain't no Justice, Just Us, Xlibris Corporation, ISBN 073880357X, pages 32:

     You're gonna work out good, Dave. I was afraid they were gonna hire another nigger or a beaner.

   • 2003, Roy Yelverton, “chapter 2”, in Shovelhead Red – The Drifter's Way:

     Hey bro I'm a beaner, we ain't good at math. Jeez, dawn 'ju watch TV?

   • 2005, Carlos Mencia, Mind of Mencia:

     I'm a beaner, and I'm telling you white people, that's a bullshit number right off the bat!

Translations

References

• John Sutherland (2000-07-31), “You are what you eat ... arguably”, in The Guardian

Etymology 2

Unknown.

Noun

beaner ‎(plural beaners)

1. (baseball) A pitch deliberately thrown at the head (the bean) of the batter.
2. (by extension, informal) Head.
   • 2001 October 2, William, “Capturing Group Therapy Hours?”, in microsoft.public.access.forms, Usenet:

     Any ideas on how I could solve this problem? This seems to be beyond what my beaner can solve right now....I hope all this work wasn't for nothing!

   • 2004 April 30, Active8 [username], “Re: Smith Chart question”, in sci.electronics.design, Usenet:

     I know what picture yer referring to, but I didn't have a problem with that because the fundamentals of reactance have been in my beaner since I was a teen.

   • 2011, Mike Griffin, Tales of the Lost Flamingo, AuthorHouse (2011), ISBN 9781456760533, page 159:

     Before Chester could compose himself, the Bombshell leaned over and planted a ruby red smackaroo right on top of his bald spot. Chester Cranepool had had a few things hit him on top of his head before, but nothing that felt that good. Looking like a Franciscan monk with a bullseye on his beaner, Chester simply said, “Bless you, my child.”

3. (US, slang, dated) A superior or admirable person; something excellent.
   • 1942 November 14, Forrest Edwin Long and Philip Westcot Lawrence Cox, The Clearing House, pages 527:

     Gee, that would be a beaner of a sign for education

   • 1949 November 14, Martha Ostenso, The Sunset Tree, Dodd, Mead, pages 106:

     Pride, indeed, Esther thought — that was a beaner! There was more purse than pride in Mayme's repentant heart

Usage notes

This sense of a superior or admirable person, from U.S. baseball slang in the 1940s and 1950s, is now almost completely superseded.

References

• Lester V. Berrey and Melvín van den Bark (1953) American Thesaurus of Slang: A Complete Reference Book of Colloquial Speech, Crowell, pages 27,354,375