banana

UK/bəˈnɑːnə/US/bəˈnænə/

nounA1Very common — you will meet it every day · #2,343 of 15,258neutral

Other forms: bananas

A banana is the long curved yellow fruit that you peel. Sweet, soft, and bruised by Wednesday.

It grows on a plant that is technically a giant herb rather than a tree, and the ones sold worldwide are nearly all one variety. The skin is what makes it a comic prop, since slipping on a banana skin is a joke a century old and now also means an unexpected embarrassment. Going bananas means going mad, and a banana republic is a small country dominated by one industry and foreign money.

Definitions of banana

1nounbananaA long curved yellow fruit with a soft inside and a thick skin.A1
“She ate a banana on the way to the station.”

Phrases it lives in

go bananas — become very excited or lose your temper

Where it comes from

Portuguese
banana
English, today
banana

Borrowed from Portuguese banana. Portuguese banana or Spanish banana, derived from a nic - language spoken in the Guinea region. Specific derivation is unknown. Possible ancestor or cognate languages include wo banaana, emk banana, and vai ꕒꘌꕯ or ꕒꕌꕯ, possibly from Arabic بَنَان (“fingertip, banana”). However, Ay Baati Wolof (Munro & Gaye, 1997) posits that wo banaana is itself derived from Portuguese banana. The racial slur derives from the notion that they are “Yellow (East-Asian) on the outside, but White (Westernized) on the inside”.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Food & Drink, A Man Called Ove

First appears in chapter 15 of A Man Called Ove.

Practise this word

banana in the wild

In some countries, cooking bananas are called plantains, distinguishing them from dessert bananas.
Banana
The world's largest producers of bananas in 2022 were India and China, which together accounted for approximately 26% of total production.
Banana
A banana chip (sometimes called banana crisp) is a deep-fried or dried, generally crispy slice of banana.
Banana chips
The main exporter of banana chips worldwide is the Philippines.
Banana chips
Banana bread is a type of sweet bread or cake made from mashed bananas.
Banana bread

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

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