bean

From Middle English bene, from Old English bēan, from Proto-West Germanic *baunu, from Proto-Germanic *baunō (“bean”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰabʰ- (“bean”). Cognate with Scots bene, bein (“bean”), West Frisian bean (“bean”), Dutch boon (“bean”), German Bohne (“bean”), Swedish böna (“bean”), Danish bønne (“bean”), Norwegian bønne (“bean”), Icelandic baun (“bean”), Latin faba (“bean”), Russian боб (bob, “bean”), Serbo-Croatian бо̏б/bȍb. Doublet of fava.

• enPR: bēn, IPA^(key): /biːn/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Homophone: been (in some dialects)
• Rhymes: -iːn

bean (plural beans)

2. Any plant of several genera of the taxonomic family Fabaceae that produces large edible seeds or edible seedpods.
   • 2004, T. N. Shivenanda, B. R. V. Iyengar, Phosphorus Management in French Bean (Phaseolus Vulgaris L.), Ramdane Dris, S. Mohan Jain (editors), Production Practices and Quality Assessment of Food Crops, Volume 2: Plant Mineral Nutrition and Pesticide Management, page 79,

     Beans are a large group of leguminous vegetables that serve as a main source of proteins in human diet. This group comprises several species and some of them are Adzuki bean (Vigna angularis); Broad bean (Vicia faba); Cluster bean (Cyamposis tetragonoloba); French bean (Phaseolus vulgaris); .

4. The large edible seed of such a plant (for example, a broad bean, navy bean, or garbanzo bean).
6. The edible seedpod of such a plant.

   Green beans, also called French beans, can be pickled and made into pickled beans.

8. (by extension) The bean-like seed of certain other plants, such as a vanilla bean or (especially) a coffee bean.
10. (by extension) An object resembling a pea or bean in shape, often made from plastic or styrofoam and used in large numbers as packing material or as stuffing for beanbags and similar items.
12. (slang) The head or brain.

    Synonym: noggin

    • 1959, Maxwell Droke, You and the World to Come, page 173:

      Now, there was a perfectly sound forecast for you. Certainly a case of using the old bean. The surmise was perfectly logical.

    • 1960, P. G. Wodehouse, Jeeves in the Offing, chapter XI and XV:

      I saw her quiver and kept a wary eye on the ginger ale bottle. But even if she had raised it and brought it down on bean, I couldn't have been more stunned than I was by the words that left her lips.
      [...]
      Well, as I say, it was from his fertile bean that the idea sprang.

14. (slang) The human clitoris.
    • 2010, Cynthia W. Gentry, Dana Fredst, What Women Really Want in Bed: The Surprising Secrets Women Wish Men Knew about Sex, Quiver, published 2010, →ISBN, page 64:

      For one, don't stage a full-frontal assault on her bean.

    • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:bean.
16. (slang, often endearing) A person; especially, a baby.
    • 2000 April 9, Richard G Cheek, “Apologies, DimWit Dana”, in talk.politics.guns (Usenet):

      Sparky is a good bean, even if he is a carpet-bagging bean at that.

    • 2002 March 21, Yena, "oh my bloody god boys!", microsoft.public.xbox, Usenet:

      i dont want boid (whoever said that) he is mean. boid is a mean bean.

    • 2007, Alex Bradley, Hot Lunch, Penguin, →ISBN:

      "Good, because we like you. You're okay. You're a good bean." "I never thought I'd be friends with a cheerleader," I said.

18. (British, slang, archaic) A guinea coin.
20. (British, slang, chiefly in the negative) Money.

    I haven't got a bean.

22. (Java programming language) Clipping of JavaBean.
    • 2017, Iuliana Cosmina, Rob Harrop, Chris Schaefer, Clarence Ho, Pro Spring 5, 5th edition, Apress, →ISBN, page 131:

      The singerOne bean has values for both the name and age properties, so it passes through the init() method with absolutely no changes.

23. (slang) Any form of tablet, especially benzedrine (benny).
    • 2022, Sean Thor Conroe, Fuccboi‎, Hachette, →ISBN:

      Once the bean kicked in I started wilding.

24. (colloquial, chiefly in the plural) A toe bean.

Beans and peas are sometimes misidentified (confused with one another); they are both legumes (belonging to the family Fabaceae) and seeds. The word bean has referred to a wide class of seeds since pre-Columbian times (when only the Eurasian types were known to Germanic language speakers), but, after Columbian contact, it was extended to other seeds belonging to the New World genus Phaseolus (runner beans, lima beans, and so on; see bean § Terminology for details). The fruits or seeds of some other non-Fabaceae plants (e.g., coffee beans, cocoa beans, vanilla beans, castor beans) are also referred to as beans, because of their resemblance to beans as named in the stricter sense.

Peas are a type of bean with smaller, round seeds in the pod, in contrast to the oval or kidney-shaped seeds usually referred to as beans. Because both terms are applied to a wide range of different legumes, the distinction is not always clear: garbanzo bean is a synonym of chickpea.

• → Fiji Hindi: biin

bean (third-person singular simple present beans, present participle beaning, simple past and past participle beaned)

1. (chiefly baseball) To hit with a projectile, especially a deliberately aimed blow to the head.

   The pitcher beaned the batter, rather than letting him hit another home run.

   • 1960, P. G. Wodehouse, Jeeves in the Offing, chapter IX and XI:

     Though I shall have to exercise an iron self-restraint to keep me from beaning that pie-faced little hornswoggler Mrs Bertram Wooster, nee Wickham, with the shaker.
     [...]
     dudgeon might easily lead her to reach for the ginger ale bottle and bean me with it.

• bean on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Bean (disambiguation) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• “bean n.¹”, in Green’s Dictionary of Slang, Jonathon Green, 2016–present

• Bane, Bena, bane, nabe

bean

1. inessive singular of be

• (Munster) IPA^(key): /bʲan̪ˠ/^[1]
• (Aran) IPA^(key): /bʲæn/^[2]
• (Cois Fharraige) IPA^(key): /bʲæːn̪ˠ/
• (Mayo, Ulster) IPA^(key): /bʲanˠ/, /bʲan̪ˠ/^[3]

From Old Irish ben,^[4] from Proto-Celtic *benā, from Proto-Indo-European *gʷḗn.

bean f (genitive singular mná, nominative plural mná)

1. woman
2. wife

bean

1. one (of women, girls)

   Tá triúr iníonacha agam; tá bean acu trasinscneach.

   I have three daughters; one of them is transgender.

• Ó Dónaill, Niall (1977) “bean”, in Foclóir Gaeilge–Béarla, Dublin: An Gúm, →ISBN
• Dinneen, Patrick S. (1904) “bean”, in Foclóir Gaeḋilge agus Béarla, 1st edition, Dublin: Irish Texts Society, page 60
• “bean”, in New English-Irish Dictionary, Foras na Gaeilge, 2013-2024

From a conflation of Old Irish benaid (“beat, strike”) and bongaid (“break, cut”).^[5][6]

bean (present analytic beanann, future analytic beanfaidh, verbal noun beant, past participle beanta)

1. (transitive, intransitive) Alternative form of bain

bean (third-person singular simple present is, present participle beinge, first-/third-person singular past indicative was, past participle beon)

1. Alternative form of been (“to be”)

bean (plural beanen)

1. Alternative form of bene (“bean”)

• bīen

From Proto-West Germanic *baunu.

• IPA^(key): /bæ͜ɑːn/

bēan f (nominative plural bēana or bēane)

1. bean (especially the broad bean)

Strong ō-stem:

• Middle English: bene, beane, beene, beyn, ben, bean
  • English: bean
  • Scots: bein, bene
  • Yola: beanès, beanes, baanès, baanes, banès (plural)

Borrowed from French béjaune.^[1]

• IPA^(key): /ˈbɛ.an/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛan
• Syllabification: be‧an

bean m animal

1. (archaic) greenhorn

   Synonym: żółtodziób

2. (archaic) rude person^[1]

   Synonyms: cham, prostak

• bean in Polish dictionaries at PWN

From Middle Irish ben,^[1] from Old Irish ben. Cognates include Irish bean and Manx ben.

• (Lewis) IPA^(key): /b̥ɛ̃n/^[2],
• (Uist, Barra) IPA^(key): /b̥ɛn/^[3]

bean f

1. wife
2. (archaic) woman

   Synonym: boireannach

• Edward Dwelly (1911) “bean”, in Faclair Gàidhlig gu Beurla le Dealbhan [The Illustrated Gaelic–English Dictionary]‎, 10th edition, Edinburgh: Birlinn Limited, →ISBN
• Colin Mark (2003) “bean”, in The Gaelic-English dictionary, London: Routledge, →ISBN, page 68

bean

1. definite singular of bea

• beane, beanne

From Old Frisian bāne, from Proto-West Germanic *baunu.

Cognate with Dutch boon, English bean, German Bohne.

• IPA^(key): /bɪə̯n/

bean c (plural beanen, diminutive beantsje)

1. bean

• “bean”, in Wurdboek fan de Fryske taal (in Dutch), 2011