banana republic

English

Etymology

Coined by American author O. Henry in 1901 in his short story Money Maze, set in the fictional "Anchuria", which was based on his 1896–97 stay in Honduras.

Pronunciation

• Audio (General Australian):

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Noun

banana republic (plural banana republics)

1. (politics, idiomatic, derogatory) A small country, especially one in Central America or the West Indies, that is dependent on a single export commodity (traditionally bananas) and that has a corrupt, dictatorial government.

   Hypernym: kleptocracy

   Near-synonym: republiqueta

   • 1901 May, O. Henry, “Money Maze”, in Ainslee's Magazine‎^[1], volume vii, number 4, New York, page 305:

     At that time we had a treaty with about every foreign country except Belgium, and that banana republic, Anchuria.

   • 2001, Cindy Forster, The Time of Freedom: Campesino Workers in Guatemala's October Revolution, University of Pittsburgh Press, →ISBN, page 117:

     The banana workers of this former banana republic were exceptionally well organized and effective in their demands from the very beginning of the revolution.

   • 2007 September 10, Marcel Berlins, “Media have rushed to judge Portuguese police”, in The Guardian‎^[2]:

     The McCanns, it is hinted and sometimes expressed explicitly, cannot possibly be treated fairly under this inadequate Portuguese system. There is a touch of arrogant xenophobia here, as if Portugal was some backward banana republic […]

Related terms

• Bananagate

 

Translations

country

• Afrikaans: piesangrepubliek (af)
• Arabic: جُمْهُورِيَّة الْمَوْزِ f (jumhūriyyat al-mawzi)
• Armenian: ադամաթզենու հանրապետություն (adamatʻzenu hanrapetutʻyun)
• Azerbaijani: banan respublikası
• Basque: banana errepublika
• Breton: republik ar bananez f
• Bulgarian: бананова република f (bananova republika)
• Catalan: república bananera (ca) f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 香蕉共和國／香蕉共和国 (zh) (xiāngjiāo gònghéguó)

• Czech: banánová republika f
• Danish: bananrepublik c, bananstat c
• Dutch: bananenrepubliek (nl) m
• Esperanto: bananrespubliko
• Estonian: banaanivabariik (et)
• Finnish: banaanivaltio (fi), banaanitasavalta (fi)
• French: république bananière (fr) f
• Galician: república bananeira (gl) f
• Georgian: ბანანის რესპუბლიკა (bananis resṗubliḳa)
• German: Bananenrepublik (de) f
• Greek: μπανανία (el) f (bananía)
• Hebrew: רֶפּוּבְּלִיקַת בָּנָנוֹת (he) f (repúblikat banánot)
• Hungarian: banánköztársaság (hu)
• Icelandic: bananalýðveldi n
• Indonesian: republik pisang
• Italian: repubblica delle banane f
• Japanese: バナナ共和国 (バナナきょうわこく, banana kyōwakoku)
• Korean: 바나나 공화국 (banana gonghwaguk)
• Kurdish:

  Central Kurdish: کۆمارا مووزان (komara mûzan)

  Northern Kurdish: komara mûzan (ku)

• Latvian: banānu republika f
• Lithuanian: bananinė respublika f
• Macedonian: банана република f (banana republika), банана-држава (banana-država)
• Malagasy: fanjakan' i Baroa (mg), fanjakana baroa (mg)
• Malay: republik pisang
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: bananrepublikk m

  Nynorsk: bananrepublikk m

• Persian: جمهوری موزی (jomhuri muzi)
• Polish: republika bananowa (pl) f
• Portuguese: república das bananas f
• Romanian: republică bananieră f
• Russian: бана́новая респу́блика (ru) f (banánovaja respúblika)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: бана́на репу̀блика f, бана́на-др̀жава f

  Roman: banána repùblika f, banána-dr̀žava f

• Slovak: banánová republika f
• Slovene: bananska republika f, banana republika f
• Spanish: república bananera f
• Swedish: bananrepublik (sv) c
• Tatar: банан республикасы (banan respublikası)
• Thai: สาธารณรัฐกล้วย
• Turkish: muz cumhuriyeti (tr)
• Ukrainian: бананова республіка f (bananova respublika)
• Urdu: جمہوریہ کیلا
• Vietnamese: cộng hoà chuối
• Welsh: gweriniaeth fanana f
• West Frisian: bananerepublyk c

Further reading

• banana republic on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Italian

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English banana republic.

Noun

banana republic f (invariable)

1. (rare, politics, idiomatic, derogatory) banana republic

   Synonym: repubblica delle banane