banana
English[edit]
Etymology[edit]
From Wolof banaana, via Spanish or Portuguese, of unknown origin, but potentially from Arabic بَنَان (banān, “fingertip”)[1].
The racial slur derives from the notion that they are "Yellow (East-Asian) on the outside, White (Westernized) on the inside".

Pronunciation[edit]
- (Received Pronunciation) enPR: bə-näʹnə, IPA(key): /bəˈnɑː.nə/
Audio (RP) [bəˈnɑː.nɐ] (file)
- (General American) enPR: bə-năʹnə, IPA(key): /bəˈnæ.nə/
Audio (GA) [bəˈnɛ̃ə̃.nə] (file)
- Hyphenation: ba‧na‧na
- Rhymes: -ɑːnə, -ænə
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.
- 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.
- (uncountable) A yellow colour, like that of a banana's skin.
- banana:
- (derogatory, ethnic slur) A person of East Asian descent, especially an ethnic Chinese from a Western country who does not speak Chinese, considered to be overly assimilated and subservient to White authority.
- Synonym: Twinkie
- (slang) The penis.
- 1986, Christopher Street, Cop Feels of Three Men's "Privates"[2], 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[3], 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[4], 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[5], 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).
Hypernyms[edit]
- (fruit): fruit
- (Asian assimilated into Western culture): race traitor
Hyponyms[edit]
- (Asian assimilated into Western culture): jook-sing
Coordinate terms[edit]
Derived terms[edit]
- Abyssinian banana
- apple banana
- banana bag
- banana ball
- banana-bender
- banana bender
- banana bird
- banana boat
- banana bond
- banana bread
- banana bus
- banana chair
- banana clip
- banana cue
- banana fold
- banana frog
- banana hammock
- bananahood
- banana ketchup
- Bananaland
- banana leaf
- banana lounge
- banana money
- banana-nose
- banana nose
- banana note
- banana oil
- banana paper
- banana passionfruit
- banana peel
- banana pepper
- banana-phile
- banana phone
- banana plug
- banana pose
- banana pudding
- bananaquit
- banana republic
- bananas
- banana seat
- bananas Foster
- bananas Foster
- banana shallot
- banana-shaped
- banana shot
- banana skin
- banana slug
- banana solution
- banana spider
- banana split
- banana-y
- banana yucca
- bananery
- bananoid
- banoffee
- bush banana
- Cavendish banana
- don't buy green bananas
- false banana
- have one foot on a banana peel
- if you pay bananas, you get monkeys
- make like a banana and split
- one-banana problem
- pink banana
- red banana
- scarlet banana
- second banana
- snow banana
- textile banana
- top banana
- tough bananas
Translations[edit]
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Adjective[edit]
banana (not comparable)
- 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]
See also[edit]
- bananas (adj)
References[edit]
Anagrams[edit]
Asturian[edit]
Noun[edit]
banana f (plural bananes)
- banana (fruit)
Synonyms[edit]
Catalan[edit]
Pronunciation[edit]
Noun[edit]
banana f (plural bananes)
Derived terms[edit]
Further reading[edit]
- “banana” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.
Cornish[edit]
Etymology[edit]
Pronunciation[edit]
Noun[edit]
banana m (plural bananas)
Mutation[edit]
French[edit]
Pronunciation[edit]
Audio (file)
Verb[edit]
banana
- third-person singular past historic of bananer (to make a mistake)
Galician[edit]
Pronunciation[edit]
Noun[edit]
banana f (plural bananas)
- banana (fruit)
- Synonym: plátano
- Os chimpancés utilizan bastóns para coller unha banana.
- Chimpanzees use sticks to pick up a banana.
Related terms[edit]
Further reading[edit]
- “banana” in Dicionario da Real Academia Galega, Royal Galician Academy.
Icelandic[edit]
Pronunciation[edit]
- Rhymes: -aːnana
Noun[edit]
banana
- definite accusative plural of bani
- inflection of banani:
Irish[edit]
Etymology[edit]
Pronunciation[edit]
Noun[edit]
banana m (genitive singular banana, nominative plural bananaí)
Declension[edit]
Bare forms
|
Forms with the definite article
|
Derived terms[edit]
- crann bananaí (“banana-tree”)
Mutation[edit]
Irish mutation | ||
---|---|---|
Radical | Lenition | Eclipsis |
banana | bhanana | mbanana |
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every possible mutated form of every word actually occurs. |
Further reading[edit]
- Ó Dónaill, Niall (1977), “banana”, in Foclóir Gaeilge–Béarla, Dublin: An Gúm, →ISBN
Italian[edit]
Pronunciation[edit]
Noun[edit]
banana f (plural banane)
- banana (fruit)
Noun[edit]
banana m (invariable)
- banana (color)
Adjective[edit]
banana (invariable)
- banana (color)
Related terms[edit]
Japanese[edit]
Romanization[edit]
banana
Lower Sorbian[edit]
Etymology[edit]
From German Banane, from ultimately from Wolof banaana.
Pronunciation[edit]
Noun[edit]
banana f
Declension[edit]
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.
Maltese[edit]
Etymology[edit]
Borrowed from Italian banana, from Wolof banaana.
Pronunciation[edit]
Noun[edit]
banana m (collective, singulative banana, paucal bananiet)
- banana (fruit)
Portuguese[edit]

Etymology[edit]
Uncertain. Possibly from Wolof banaana (“banana”) or Arabic بَنَان (banān, “fingertip, banana”).
Pronunciation[edit]
Noun[edit]
banana f (plural bananas)
- banana (fruit)
- As 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
Noun[edit]
banana m or f by sense (plural bananas)
- (derogatory, slang) wimp (a weak or unconfident person)
- Aquele rapaz é um banana! ― That guy is a wimp!
Romanian[edit]
Noun[edit]
banana f
- definite singular nominative/accusative of banană (banana (fruit))
Sardinian[edit]
Etymology[edit]
From Spanish banana, from Wolof banaana.
Pronunciation[edit]
Noun[edit]
banana f (plural bananas)
- banana (fruit)
Serbo-Croatian[edit]
Etymology[edit]
From Spanish, from Portuguese, from Wolof banaana.
Pronunciation[edit]
Noun[edit]
banána f (Cyrillic spelling бана́на)
Declension[edit]
References[edit]
- “banana” in Hrvatski jezični portal
Spanish[edit]
Etymology[edit]
Pronunciation[edit]
Noun[edit]
banana f (plural bananas)
Usage notes[edit]
- banana may also be used in Spain, to differentiate from plátano (“plantain”); otherwise, plátano refers to either.
Derived terms[edit]
Further reading[edit]
- “banana”, in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014
Tok Pisin[edit]
Etymology[edit]
Noun[edit]
banana
- banana
- 1995, John Verhaar, Toward a reference grammar of Tok Pisin: an experiment in corpus linguistics[6] (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 English banana, from Wolof banaana, via Portuguese and/or Spanish.
Pronunciation[edit]
- (North Wales) IPA(key): /baˈnana/
- (South Wales) IPA(key): /baˈnaːna/, /baˈnana/
Noun[edit]
banana f (plural bananas)
Synonyms[edit]
- (jocular) ffrwchnedden
Mutation[edit]
Welsh mutation | |||
---|---|---|---|
radical | soft | nasal | aspirate |
banana | fanana | manana | unchanged |
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every possible mutated form of every word actually occurs. |
- English terms derived from Wolof
- English terms derived from Spanish
- English terms derived from Portuguese
- English terms derived from Arabic
- English terms derived from the Arabic root ب و ن
- English 3-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio links
- Rhymes:English/ɑːnə
- Rhymes:English/ɑːnə/3 syllables
- Rhymes:English/ænə
- Rhymes:English/ænə/3 syllables
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English uncountable nouns
- English countable nouns
- Canadian English
- American English
- British English
- Irish English
- English derogatory terms
- English ethnic slurs
- English slang
- English terms with quotations
- en:Sports
- en:Nuclear physics
- en:Computer science
- English colloquialisms
- English adjectives
- English uncomparable adjectives
- en:Radioactivity
- en:Potassium
- en:Culture
- en:Fruits
- en:Genitalia
- en:Racism
- en:Yellows
- en:Zingiberales order plants
- Asturian lemmas
- Asturian nouns
- Asturian feminine nouns
- ast:Fruits
- Catalan 3-syllable words
- Catalan terms with IPA pronunciation
- Catalan terms with audio links
- Catalan lemmas
- Catalan nouns
- Catalan countable nouns
- Catalan feminine nouns
- ca:Fruits
- Cornish terms borrowed from English
- Cornish terms derived from English
- Cornish terms with IPA pronunciation
- Cornish lemmas
- Cornish nouns
- Cornish masculine nouns
- kw:Fruits
- French terms with audio links
- French non-lemma forms
- French verb forms
- Galician terms with IPA pronunciation
- Galician lemmas
- Galician nouns
- Galician countable nouns
- Galician feminine nouns
- Galician terms with usage examples
- gl:Fruits
- Rhymes:Icelandic/aːnana
- Rhymes:Icelandic/aːnana/3 syllables
- Icelandic non-lemma forms
- Icelandic noun forms
- Irish terms derived from Wolof
- Irish terms with IPA pronunciation
- Irish lemmas
- Irish nouns
- Irish masculine nouns
- Irish fourth-declension nouns
- ga:Fruits
- Italian 3-syllable words
- Italian terms with IPA pronunciation
- Italian terms with audio links
- Rhymes:Italian/ana
- Rhymes:Italian/ana/3 syllables
- Italian lemmas
- Italian nouns
- Italian countable nouns
- Italian feminine nouns
- Italian indeclinable nouns
- Italian nouns with irregular gender
- Italian masculine nouns
- Italian adjectives
- Italian indeclinable adjectives
- it:Colors
- it:Fruits
- Japanese non-lemma forms
- Japanese romanizations
- Lower Sorbian terms borrowed from German
- Lower Sorbian terms derived from German
- Lower Sorbian terms derived from Wolof
- Lower Sorbian terms with IPA pronunciation
- Lower Sorbian lemmas
- Lower Sorbian nouns
- Lower Sorbian feminine nouns
- dsb:Fruits
- Maltese terms borrowed from Italian
- Maltese terms derived from Italian
- Maltese terms derived from Wolof
- Maltese 3-syllable words
- Maltese terms with IPA pronunciation
- Maltese lemmas
- Maltese nouns
- Maltese collective nouns
- Maltese masculine nouns
- mt:Fruits
- Portuguese terms with unknown etymologies
- Portuguese terms derived from Wolof
- Portuguese terms derived from Arabic
- Portuguese 3-syllable words
- Portuguese terms with IPA pronunciation
- Rhymes:Portuguese/ɐ̃nɐ
- Rhymes:Portuguese/ɐ̃nɐ/3 syllables
- Rhymes:Portuguese/ɐnɐ
- Rhymes:Portuguese/ɐnɐ/3 syllables
- Portuguese lemmas
- Portuguese nouns
- Portuguese countable nouns
- Portuguese feminine nouns
- Portuguese terms with usage examples
- Portuguese informal terms
- Brazilian Portuguese
- Portuguese nouns with irregular gender
- Portuguese masculine nouns
- Portuguese nouns with multiple genders
- Portuguese masculine and feminine nouns by sense
- Portuguese derogatory terms
- Portuguese slang
- pt:Fruits
- pt:Zingiberales order plants
- Romanian non-lemma forms
- Romanian noun forms
- Sardinian terms derived from Spanish
- Sardinian terms borrowed from Wolof
- Sardinian terms derived from Wolof
- Sardinian terms with IPA pronunciation
- Sardinian lemmas
- Sardinian nouns
- Sardinian feminine nouns
- sc:Fruits
- sc:Foods
- Serbo-Croatian terms derived from Spanish
- Serbo-Croatian terms derived from Portuguese
- Serbo-Croatian terms derived from Wolof
- Serbo-Croatian terms with IPA pronunciation
- Serbo-Croatian lemmas
- Serbo-Croatian nouns
- Serbo-Croatian feminine nouns
- sh:Fruits
- sh:Zingiberales order plants
- Spanish terms borrowed from Wolof
- Spanish terms derived from Wolof
- Spanish 3-syllable words
- Spanish terms with IPA pronunciation
- Rhymes:Spanish/ana
- Rhymes:Spanish/ana/3 syllables
- Spanish lemmas
- Spanish nouns
- Spanish countable nouns
- Spanish feminine nouns
- Argentinian Spanish
- Colombian Spanish
- Ecuadorian Spanish
- Paraguayan Spanish
- Uruguayan Spanish
- es:Fruits
- Tok Pisin terms derived from English
- Tok Pisin lemmas
- Tok Pisin nouns
- Tok Pisin terms with quotations
- tpi:Fruits
- Welsh terms borrowed from English
- Welsh terms derived from English
- Welsh terms derived from Wolof
- Welsh terms with IPA pronunciation
- Welsh lemmas
- Welsh nouns
- Welsh countable nouns
- Welsh feminine nouns
- cy:Fruits