See also: Appendix:Variations of "banana" Languages (20)EnglishAsturian • Catalan • Cornish • French • Galician • Icelandic • Irish • Italian • Japanese • Latin • Lower Sorbian • Maltese • Portuguese • Romanian • Sardinian • Serbo-Croatian • Spanish • Tok Pisin • WelshPage categories
English
[edit]English Wikipedia has an article on:bananaWikipedia Four different types of bananas. The larger yellow bananas on the far right are commercially dominant Cavendish bananas.
Etymology
[edit]
Borrowed from Portuguesebanana or Spanishbanana, derived from a Niger-Congo language spoken in the Guinea region.[1] Specific derivation is unclear. Possible ancestor or cognate languages include Wolofbanaana, Eastern Maninkakanbanana, and Vaiꕒꘌꕯ(ɓaana) or ꕒꕌꕯ(ɓaana),[2][3][4][5] possibly from Arabicبَنَان(banān, “fingertip, banana”).[6] However, Ay Baati Wolof (Munro & Gaye, 1997) posits that Wolofbanaana is itself derived from Portuguesebanana.[7]
The racial slur derives from the notion that they are “Yellow (East-Asian) on the outside, but White (Westernized) on the inside”.
Pronunciation
[edit]
Hyphenation: ba‧na‧na
enPR: bə-näʹnə, Rhymes: -ɑːnə
(Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /bəˈnɑː.nə/
Audio:
(file)
(Indic) IPA(key): /bəˈnɑ.nɑ/
enPR: bə-nănʹə, Rhymes: -ænə
(General American) IPA(key): /bəˈnæ.nə/
Audio:
(file)
Noun
[edit]
banana (countable and uncountable, plural bananas)
An elongated curved tropical fruit of a banana plant, which grows in bunches and has a creamy flesh and a smooth skin. [from 1597]Jimmy had a banana for breakfast.
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.
(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.
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. [from 1697]
(uncountable) A yellow color, like that of a banana's skin. [from 1923] banana:
(derogatory, ethnic slur) A person of East or Southeast Asian descent, considered to be overly assimilated and subservient to white authority. [from 1970]Synonym:Twinkie
(Malaysia, Singapore, derogatory, ethnic slur) A person of Chinese descent who cannot speak Mandarin or any Chinese dialect
(slang) The penis.
1986, Christopher Street, Cop Feels of Three Men's "Privates"[11], 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[12], 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[13], 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[14], 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.
(sports) A banana kick.
(nuclear physics) A banana equivalent dose.
(computer science, colloquial) A catamorphism (from the use of banana brackets in the notation).
An incorrectly held handstand, often seen in beginners.
Hypernyms
[edit]
(fruit): fruit
(Asian assimilated into Western culture):race traitor
Hyponyms
[edit]
(Asian assimilated into Western culture):jook-sing
Coordinate terms
[edit]
(Asian assimilated into Western culture):egg, coconut, Oreo
(fruit):finger, hand
Derived terms
[edit]
Abyssinian banana
apple banana
banana bag
banana ball
banana belt
banana-bender, banana bender
banana bird
banana boa
banana boat
banana bond
banana box
banana bread
banana bus
banana cake
banana chair
banana clip
banana connector
banana cue
banana-ey
banana fly
banana fold
banana freckle
banana frog
Bananagate
bananageddon
banana hammock
bananahood
banana ketchup
banana knife
Bananaland
banana leaf
bananaless
bananalike
banana-like
banana lounge
banana lounger
banana melon
banana money
banana-nose
banana nose
banana note
banana oil
banana orbit
Banana Pancake Circuit
Banana Pancake Trail
banana paper
banana passionfruit
banana peel
banana pepper
banana-phile
bananaphile
bananaphobia
banana phone
banana plug
banana pose
banana prawn
banana pudding
bananaquit
banana republic
bananarita
Banana River
banana roll
bananas
banana seat
bananas Foster
banana shallot
banana-shaped
banana shot
banana skin
banana slice
banana slug
banana solution
banana spider
banana split
banana squash
bananatini
banana tree
banana-y
banana yucca
bananery
bananivorous
bananoid
bandango
banilla
banoffee
banoffee pie
banoodles
Blue Banana
bush banana
Cavendish banana
coconana
don't buy green bananas
false banana
Flying Banana
Golden Banana
hairy banana
have one foot on a banana peel
if you pay bananas, you get monkeys
make like a banana and split
nonbanana
one-banana problem
pink banana
prairie banana
red banana
red-flowering banana
scarlet banana
second banana
snow banana
strawbana
textile banana
time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana
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
[edit]
bunch
hand
Appendix:English collective nouns
See also
[edit]
bananas(adjective)
abaca
coconut
dining leaf
matoke
oreo
plantain
sinamay
waragi
Appendix:Colors
References
[edit]
^ “banana, n.”, in OED Online , Oxford: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.
^ “banana”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.
^ “banana”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.
^ “banana”, in Collins English Dictionary.
^ S.W. Koelle (1854), Outlines of a Grammar of the Vei Language: Together with a Vei-English Vocabulary[1], London Church Missionary House, page 144
^ Oxford Dictionaries citing John Ayto’s The Diner’s Dictionary: Word origins of food and drink [2]
^ Munro, Pamela; Gaye, Dieynaba (1997), Ay baati Wolof: A Wolof dictionary (UCLA Occasional Papers in Linguistics)[3], Los Angeles: Department of Linguistics, University of California, Los Angeles, →OCLC, page 15
Anagrams
[edit]
Annaba
Asturian
[edit]
Pronunciation
[edit]
IPA(key): /baˈnana/[baˈna.na]
Rhymes: -ana
Syllabification: ba‧na‧na
Noun
[edit]
bananaf (plural bananes)
banana(fruit)Synonym:plátanu
Catalan
[edit]
Pronunciation
[edit]
IPA(key): (Central, Balearic)[bəˈna.nə]
IPA(key): (Valencia)[baˈna.na]
Audio (Catalonia):
(file)
Noun
[edit]
bananaf (plural bananes)
banana(fruit)Synonym:plàtan
Derived terms
[edit]
bananer
Further reading
[edit]
“banana”, in Diccionari de la llengua catalana [Dictionary of the Catalan Language] (in Catalan), second edition, Institute of Catalan Studies [Catalan: Institut d'Estudis Catalans], April 2007
Cornish
[edit]
Etymology
[edit]
From Englishbanana.
Pronunciation
[edit]
(Revived Middle Cornish) IPA(key): [baˈnaːna]
(Revived Late Cornish) IPA(key): [bəˈnæːnɐ]
Noun
[edit]
bananam (plural bananas)
banana
Mutation
[edit]
Mutation of banana
unmutated
soft
aspirate
hard
mixed
mixed after 'th
banana
vanana
unchanged
panana
fanana
vanana
Note: Certain mutated forms of some words can never occur in standard Cornish.All possible mutated forms are displayed for convenience.
French
[edit]
Pronunciation
[edit]
Audio (France (Lyon)):
(file)
Verb
[edit]
banana
third-person singular past historic of bananer (to make a mistake)
Galician
[edit]
Pronunciation
[edit]
IPA(key): /baˈnana/[baˈnã.nɐ]
Rhymes: -ana
Hyphenation: ba‧na‧na
Noun
[edit]
bananaf (plural bananas)
banana(fruit)Synonym:plátanoOs chimpancés utilizan bastóns para coller unha banana.Chimpanzees use sticks to pick up a banana.
Related terms
[edit]
bananeira
Further reading
[edit]
“banana”, in Dicionario da Real Academia Galega (in Galician), A Coruña: Royal Galician Academy, 2012–2026
(New Latin) banana Synonyms:(Classical Latin, rare)ariēna, (Medieval Latin)mūsa
1619, Americæ pars undecima: Seu descriptio admirandi itineris a Guilielmo Schouten Hollando peracti:[…], Oppenheim: Typis Hieronymi Galleri, page 41:Illi amicabiliter ad navem noſtram appellentes, tantum Cocorum ac Bananarum nobis obtulerunt numerum, ut quilibet in navi nuces 50. duos Bananarum corbes eo die lucraretur.(please add an English translation of this quotation)
1622, Antonio de Herrera [y Tordesillas], translated by C[aspar] Barlæus, Novus Orbis, Sive Descriptio Indiae Occidentalis,[…], Amsterdam: Apud Michaelem Colinium Bibliopolam, ad insigne Libri Domestici, page 71:Tabaci, Cocorum, Bananarum, oryzæ, piſorum, fabarum, porcorum, gallinarum & piſcium nobis faciebant copiam.(please add an English translation of this quotation)
1832, Voyage de la corvette l’Astrolabe : Exécuté pár ordre du roi, pendant les années 1826-1827-1828-1829, sous le commandement de M. J. Dumont d’Urville,[…], volume IV, Paris: J. Tastu,[…], page 686:Hi Æthiopes monstrabant ut tormenta nostra exploderemus in canoas istas, sed significabatur ipsis, hoc à natura batava alienum, nocere inculpatis, si vero nos læderent, arma nobis data defensioni, nihilominus advolant amicè, adferentes tantam abundantiam cocorum et bananarum, quantam desiderabamus, ut socio unicuique quinquaginta nuces distribuerentur et duo fasciculi bananarum.(please add an English translation of this quotation)
1884, Francis William Newman, Rebilius Cruso: Robinson Crusoe, in Latin; a Book to Lighten Tedium to a Learner, London: Trübner & Co.,[…], page 56:Jam dactylos, bananas, cocos nuces, ananassas, uvas, ad libitum me habiturum spero: nimia me spes et nimia cupiditas festinavit. […] Modicum bananarum et dactylorum onus assumo: vescor quantum libet, bibo e rivulo, et, relictâ scaphâ, ascendo vallem.(please add an English translation of this quotation)
2010 January 21, Erik Collins, “Sample Lesson: Lesson plans for Capitulum VIII of Oerberg’s Lingua Latīna”, in LATIN 4770: Methods and Materials for Teaching Latin (The Official Wheelock’s Latin Series Website):Post mēnsam, delīnā tabernārium in tabernā, quī māla et bananās vendit.Behind the desk, draw in his shop a seller of apples and bananas.
Declension
[edit]
First-declension noun.
singular
plural
nominative
banāna
banānae
genitive
banānae
banānārum
dative
banānae
banānīs
accusative
banānam
banānās
ablative
banānā
banānīs
vocative
banāna
banānae
Lower Sorbian
[edit]
Etymology
[edit]
From GermanBanane, ultimately from Wolofbanaana.
Pronunciation
[edit]
IPA(key): /baˈnana/
Noun
[edit]
bananaf
banana
Declension
[edit] 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
[edit]
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.
Borrowed from a Niger-Congo language spoken in the Guinea region.[1][2] Further derivation is unclear. Possible ancestor or cognate languages include Wolofbanaana, Eastern Maninkakanbanana, and Vaiꕒꘌꕯ(ɓaana) or ꕒꕌꕯ(ɓaana).[3][4] However, Ay Baati Wolof (Munro & Gaye, 1997) posits that Wolofbanaana is itself derived from Portuguese.[5]
banana(fruit)Synonym:(Brazil)pacovaAs bananas são ricas em potássio ― Bananas are high in potassium
banana(plant)Synonym:(more common)bananeira
(informal) penis
(Brazil, informal) bras d'honneur (obscene gesture)Synonym:(Portugal)manguito
Derived terms
[edit]
banana de dinamite
banana-comprida
banana-da-terra
banana-pão
bananal
bananão
bananeira
bananinha
embananar
república das bananas
república de bananas
Descendants
[edit]
→ Dutch: banaan (see there for further descendants)
→? English: banana (see there for further descendants)
→ French: banane (see there for further descendants)
→ German: Banane, Banana(obsolete; until 19th c.)
→ Estonian: banaan
→ Hunsrik: Banann
⇒? Greek: μπανάνα(banána)
⇒? Latvian: banāns
⇒? Norwegian Bokmål: banan
⇒? Norwegian Nynorsk: banan
→? Spanish: banana (see there for further descendants)
⇒? Swedish: banan, bananas(obsolete)
→ Finnish: banaani
Noun
[edit]
bananam or f by sense (plural bananas)
(derogatory, slang) wimp (a weak or unconfident person)Aquele rapaz é um banana! ― That guy is a wimp!
References
[edit]
^ Nascentes, Antenor (1955), “banana”, in Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa [Etymological dictionary of the Portuguese language] (in Portuguese), 2nd edition, volume I, Rio de Janeiro: Livraria Acadêmica, page 61, column 1
^ Academia das Ciências de Lisboa (2001–present), “banana”, in Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa[4]
^ “banana”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.
^ S.W. Koelle (1854), Outlines of a Grammar of the Vei Language: Together with a Vei-English Vocabulary[5], London Church Missionary House, page 144
^ Munro, Pamela; Gaye, Dieynaba (1997), Ay baati Wolof: A Wolof dictionary (UCLA Occasional Papers in Linguistics)[6], Los Angeles: Department of Linguistics, University of California, Los Angeles, →OCLC, page 15
Further reading
[edit]
“banana”, in Dicionário Aulete Digital (in Portuguese), Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon Editora Digital, 2008–2026
“banana”, in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Lisbon: Priberam, 2008–2026
Romanian
[edit]
Noun
[edit]
bananaf
definite singular nominative/accusative of banană (banana (fruit))
Sardinian
[edit]
Etymology
[edit]
From Spanishbanana, from Wolofbanaana.
Pronunciation
[edit]
IPA(key): /banana/
Noun
[edit]
bananaf (plural bananas)
banana (fruit)
Serbo-Croatian
[edit]
Etymology
[edit]
From Spanish, from Portuguese, from Wolofbanaana.
Pronunciation
[edit]
IPA(key): /banǎːna/
Hyphenation: ba‧na‧na
Noun
[edit]
banánaf (Cyrillic spelling бана́на)
banana
Declension
[edit]
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
[edit]
“banana”, in Hrvatski jezični portal [Croatian language portal] (in Serbo-Croatian), 2006–2026
Spanish
[edit]
Etymology
[edit]
Derived from a Niger-Congo language spoken in the Guinea region,[1] probably through Portuguesebanana.[2] Further derivation is unclear. Possible ancestor or cognate languages include Wolofbanaana, Eastern Maninkakanbanana, and Vaiꕒꘌꕯ(ɓaana) or ꕒꕌꕯ(ɓaana).[3][4] However, Ay Baati Wolof (Munro & Gaye, 1997) posits that Wolofbanaana is itself derived from Portuguesebanana.[5]
(Bolivia, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Honduras, colloquial) penis
Usage notes
[edit]
banana may also be used in Spain, to differentiate from plátano(“plantain”); otherwise, plátano refers to either.
Derived terms
[edit]
bananero
banano
Descendants
[edit]
→? English: banana (see there for further descendants)
⇒? Latvian: banāns
⇒? Norwegian Bokmål: banan
⇒? Norwegian Nynorsk: banan
⇒ Serbo-Croatian:
Cyrillic script: бана́на
Latin script: banána
⇒? Swedish: banan, bananas(obsolete)
→ Finnish: banaani
References
[edit]
^ Coromines, Joan; Pascual, José Antonio (1984), “banana”, in Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico [Critical Castilian and Hispanic etymological dictionary][7] (in Spanish), volume I (A–Ca), Madrid: Gredos, →ISBN, page 484
^ “Etimología de BANANA”, in DECEL - Diccionario Etimológico Castellano en Línea[8], 2024
^ “banana”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.
^ S.W. Koelle (1854), Outlines of a Grammar of the Vei Language: Together with a Vei-English Vocabulary[9], London Church Missionary House, page 144
^ Munro, Pamela; Gaye, Dieynaba (1997), Ay baati Wolof: A Wolof dictionary (UCLA Occasional Papers in Linguistics)[10], Los Angeles: Department of Linguistics, University of California, Los Angeles, →OCLC, page 15
Further reading
[edit]
“banana”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8.1, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 15 December 2025
Tok Pisin
[edit]
Etymology
[edit]
From Englishbanana.
Noun
[edit]
banana
banana
1995, John Verhaar, Toward a reference grammar of Tok Pisin: an experiment in corpus linguistics[15] (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
[edit]
Etymology
[edit]
From Englishbanana, from Wolofbanaana, via Portuguese and/or Spanish.
Pronunciation
[edit]
(North Wales) IPA(key): /baˈnana/
(South Wales) IPA(key): /baˈna(ː)na/
Rhymes: -ana
Noun
[edit]
bananaf (plural bananas)
banana Synonym:(humorous)ffrwchnedden
Derived terms
[edit]
twinc bananas(“bananquit”)
Mutation
[edit]
Mutated forms of banana
radical
soft
nasal
aspirate
banana
fanana
manana
unchanged
Note: Certain mutated forms of some words can never occur in standard Welsh.All possible mutated forms are displayed for convenience.
, Oxford: Oxford University Press, launched 2000. 
