eggplant

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English

An eggplant.
White eggplant fruits, for whose resemblance to chicken eggs the plant is named

Alternative forms

Etymology

From egg +‎ plant, originally applied only to the white-colored, egg-shaped variety.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈɛɡ.plænt/, /-plɑːnt/
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Noun

eggplant (countable and uncountable, plural eggplants)

  1. (Canada, US, Australia, New Zealand, Philippines) The plant Solanum melongena.
  2. (Canada, US, Australia, New Zealand, Philippines) The edible fruit of the Solanum melongena: an aubergine.
  3. (Canada, US) A dark purple color, like that of the skin of this fruit.
    eggplant:  
  4. (US, slang, derogatory, offensive) A black person (used mainly by Italian-Americans).
    • 1993, Quentin Tarantino, True Romance, spoken by Clifford Worley (Dennis Hopper):
      Hey. Yeah. And, and your great-great-great-great grandmother fucked a nigger, ho, ho, yeah, and she had a half-nigger kid… now, if that's a fact, tell me, am I lying? 'Cause you, you're part eggplant.
    • 2004, Wendy Coakley-Thompson, Back to Life:
      "Why am I not surprised?" This was the limit. "You know, I'm black enough for his family to yell eggplant-this and nigger-that at me," she said.
    • 2006, Jerome Charyn, Raised by wolves: the turbulent art and times of Quentin Tarantino:
      What else can he do? But Hopper continues his riff. "Sicilians still carry that nigger gene . . . Your ancestors are niggers. You're part eggplant."
  5. (skateboarding, snowboarding) A 180 backside rotated invert in which the front hand is planted on the lip of the halfpipe wall

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