banana

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See also: Appendix:Variations of "banana"

English

English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia

Etymology

From Wolof banaana, via Spanish or Portuguese, of unknown origin, but potentially from Arabic بَنَان (banān, “fingertip”).

The racial slur derives from the notion that they are "Yellow (East-Asian) on the outside, White (Westernized) on the inside".

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

Pronunciation

Noun

banana (countable and uncountable, plural bananas)

  1. An elongated curved tropical fruit of a banana plant, which grows in bunches and has a creamy flesh and a smooth skin.
    • 2017, Sam Shepard, chapter 27, in Spy of the First Person, →ISBN, page 62:
      I'll need a few things. I'll need some mayonnaise and a silver tin of sardines, a banana.
    1. (Canada, US, UK, Ireland) In particular, the sweet, yellow fruit of the Cavendish banana cultivar, which may be eaten raw, as distinct from e.g. a plantain for cooking.
  2. The tropical tree-like plant which bears clusters of bananas, a plant of the genus Musa (but sometimes also including plants from Ensete), which has large, elongated leaves.
  3. (uncountable) A yellow colour, like that of a banana's skin.
    banana:  
  4. (derogatory, ethnic slur) A person of East Asian descent, especially an ethnic Chinese from a Western country who does not speak Chinese, considered to be overly assimilated and subservient to White authority.
    Synonym: Twinkie
  5. (slang) The penis.
    • 1986, Christopher Street, Cop Feels of Three Men's "Privates"‎, volume 10:
      The fact that the cop bought O'Brien a beer after feeling of his banana suggests that it must have been a promising one
    • 2012, Sarah Miynowski, Fishbowl‎, page 36:
      His you-know-what turned soft .. his eight o'clock class was the last thing on his mind five minutes ago, when his banana wasn't overripe.
    • 2014, Anthony Bunko, Lord Forgive Me‎, page 71:
      Most of the gang were trying their best to shag the girls. One boy was sitting in a tree playing with himself and another was asking a table of teenagers if they would like to see his banana.
    • 2017, Intimate Relationships in Cinema, Literature and Visual Culture‎, page 234:
      He adds that after eating his banana (sucking his penis), he wants anal sex, but she asks him to lick her pussy. Then he tells her no because it is disgusting.
  6. (sports) A banana kick.
  7. (nuclear physics) A banana equivalent dose.
  8. (computer science, colloquial) A catamorphism (from the use of banana brackets in the notation).

Hypernyms

Hyponyms

  • (Asian assimilated into Western culture): jook-sing

Coordinate terms

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, →ISBN, page 155:
      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, →ISBN, page 53:
      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, →ISBN, page 247:
      [...]Bernd Schneider closed the scoring in injury-time with a 23 meter free-kick banana shot into the upper-right corner.

Hypernyms

See also

References

  1. ^ Oxford Dictionaries citing John Ayto’s The Diner’s Dictionary: Word origins of food and drink

Anagrams

Asturian

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /baˈnana/,
  • Rhymes: -ana
  • Hyphenation: ba‧na‧na

Noun

banana f (plural bananes)

  1. banana (fruit)
    Synonym: plátanu

Catalan

Pronunciation

Noun

banana f (plural bananes)

  1. banana (fruit)
    Synonym: plàtan

Derived terms

Further reading

Cornish

Etymology

From English banana.

Pronunciation

  • (Revived Middle Cornish) IPA(key):
  • (Revived Late Cornish) IPA(key):

Noun

banana m (plural bananas)

  1. banana

Mutation

  Mutation of banana  
Cornish consonant mutation
unmutated soft aspirate hard mixed mixed after 'th
banana vanana unchanged panana fanana vanana

French

Pronunciation

Verb

banana

  1. third-person singular past historic of bananer (to make a mistake)

Galician

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /baˈnana/
  • Rhymes: -ana
  • Hyphenation: ba‧na‧na

Noun

banana f (plural bananas)

  1. banana (fruit)
    Synonym: plátano
    Os chimpancés utilizan bastóns para coller unha banana.
    Chimpanzees use sticks to pick up a banana.

Related terms

Further reading

Icelandic

Pronunciation

Noun

banana

  1. definite accusative plural of bani
  2. inflection of banani:
    1. indefinite accusative
    2. indefinite dative singular
    3. indefinite genitive

Irish

Etymology

From Wolof banaana.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /bˠəˈn̪ˠan̪ˠə/

Noun

banana m (genitive singular banana, nominative plural bananaí)

  1. banana

Declension

Declension of banana

Fourth declension

Bare forms

Case Singular Plural
Nominative banana bananaí
Vocative a bhanana a bhananaí
Genitive banana bananaí
Dative banana bananaí

Forms with the definite article

Case Singular Plural
Nominative an banana na bananaí
Genitive an bhanana na mbananaí
Dative leis an mbanana

don bhanana

leis na bananaí

Derived terms

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.

Further reading

Italian

Italian Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia it

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /baˈna.na/
  • Audio(file)
  • Rhymes: -ana
  • Hyphenation: ba‧nà‧na

Noun

banana f (plural banane)

  1. banana (fruit)

Noun

banana m (invariable)

  1. banana (color)

Adjective

banana (invariable)

  1. banana (color)

Related terms

Japanese

Romanization

banana

  1. Rōmaji transcription of バナナ

Lower Sorbian

Etymology

From German Banane, ultimately from Wolof banaana.

Pronunciation

Noun

banana f inan

  1. banana

Declension

Declension of banana
Singular Dual Plural
Nominative banana bananje banany
Genitive banany bananowu bananow
Dative bananje bananoma bananam
Accusative bananu bananje banany
Instrumental bananu bananoma bananami
Locative bananje bananoma bananach

References

  • Starosta, Manfred (1999) “banana”, in Dolnoserbsko-nimski słownik / Niedersorbisch-deutsches Wörterbuch (in German), Bautzen: Domowina-Verlag
  • Lower Sorbian vocabulary. In: Haspelmath, M. & Tadmor, U. (eds.) World Loanword Database. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.

Maltese

Etymology

Borrowed from Italian banana, from Wolof banaana.

Pronunciation

Noun

banana m (collective, singulative banana, paucal bananiet)

  1. banana (fruit)

Portuguese

bananas

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

 
  • (Brazil) IPA(key): /baˈnɐ̃.nɐ/, /bɐˈnɐ.nɐ/
    • (Southern Brazil) IPA(key): /baˈnɐ.na/, /bɐˈnɐ.na/
 

Noun

banana f (plural bananas)

  1. banana (fruit)
    As bananas são ricas em potássio ― Bananas are high in potassium
  2. banana (plant)
    Synonym: (more common) bananeira
  3. (informal) penis
  4. (Brazil, informal) bras d'honneur (obscene gesture)
    Synonym: (Portugal) manguito

Noun

banana m or f by sense (plural bananas)

  1. (derogatory, slang) wimp (a weak or unconfident person)
    Aquele rapaz é um banana! ― That guy is a wimp!

Romanian

Noun

banana f

  1. definite singular nominative/accusative of banană (banana (fruit))

Sardinian

Etymology

From Spanish banana, from Wolof banaana.

Pronunciation

Noun

banana f (plural bananas)

  1. banana (fruit)

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

Declension of banana
singular plural
nominative banana banane
genitive banane banana
dative banani bananama
accusative bananu banane
vocative banano banane
locative banani bananama
instrumental bananom bananama

References

  • “banana” in Hrvatski jezični portal

Spanish

Etymology

Borrowed from Wolof banaana.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /baˈnana/
  • Rhymes: -ana
  • Syllabification: ba‧na‧na

Noun

banana f (plural bananas)

  1. (Argentina, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Uruguay) banana (fruit)
    Synonyms: plátano, guineo, cambur, banano

Usage notes

  • banana may also be used in Spain, to differentiate from plátano (“plantain”); otherwise, plátano refers to either.

Derived terms

Further reading

Tok Pisin

This entry has fewer than three known examples of actual usage, the minimum considered necessary for clear attestation, and may not be reliable. This language is subject to a special exemption for languages with limited documentation. If you speak it, please consider editing this entry or adding citations. See also Help and the Community Portal.

Etymology

From English banana.

Noun

banana

  1. banana
    • 1995, John Verhaar, Toward a reference grammar of Tok Pisin: an experiment in corpus linguistics‎ (overall work in English), →ISBN, page 433:
      Mekim olsem pinis, orait tupela i planim taro na banana, na kumu, painap, kon, tomato, na kaukau tu.
      (please add an English translation of this quotation)

Welsh

Etymology

From English banana, from Wolof banaana, via Portuguese and/or Spanish.

Pronunciation

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.
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