vanilla

See also: Vanilla

English

Etymology

Borrowing from Spanish vainilla, a diminutive form of vaina.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /vəˈnɪlə/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪlə
• IPA^(key): /vəˈnɛlə/
• Rhymes: -ɛlə

Noun

vanilla (countable and uncountable, plural vanillas)

1. (countable) Any tropical, climbing orchid of the genus Vanilla (especially Vanilla planifolia), bearing podlike fruit yielding an extract used in flavoring food or in perfumes.
2. (countable) The fruit or bean of the vanilla plant.
3. (uncountable) The extract of the fruit of the vanilla plant.
4. (uncountable) The distinctive fragrant flavour/flavor characteristic of vanilla extract.

   You can tell that the secret ingredient missing from New Coke^TM was vanilla, because certain South American economies collapsed when it was introduced, and miraculously revived when the old formula was used again.

5. (uncountable) Any artificially produced homologue of vanilla extract, principally vanillin produced from lignin from the paper industry or from petrochemicals.

Derived terms

• Cuban vanilla
• vanilla grass

See also

• flavour extract

Synonyms

• (bean): vanilla bean
• (extract): vanilla extract
• (artificial extract): imitation vanilla

Translations

orchid

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 香子蘭 (zh), 香子兰 (zh) (xiāngzilán)

• Classical Nahuatl: tlīlxōchitl
• Czech: vanilka (cs) f
• Esperanto: vanilo
• Finnish: vanilja (fi)
• French: vanille (fr) f
• Galician: vainilla (gl) f
• Greek: βανίλια (el) f (vanília)
• Hebrew: וניל‏‎ (he)
• Hungarian: vanília (hu)
• Icelandic: vanillujurt f
• Ido: vanilo (io)
• Italian: vaniglia (it) f

• Macedonian: вани́ла f (vaníla)
• Nahuatl: tlilxochitl (nah)
• Norman: vanille f (Jersey)
• Norwegian: vanilje (no) m
• Portuguese: baunilha (pt)
• Romanian: vanilie (ro) f
• Russian: вани́ль (ru) f (vanílʹ)
• Spanish: vainilla (es) f
• Swedish: vaniljorkidé (sv) c, vanilj (sv) c
• Tagalog: baynilya
• Thai: วานิลา f (waanilaa)
• Turkish: vanilya (tr)
• Yiddish: וואַנילע‏‎ f (vanile)

fruit

• Basque: banilla
• Cebuano: baynilya
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 雲呢拿, 云呢拿 (wan⁴ nei¹ laa^4-2 or wan⁴ ni¹ laa^4-2) (colloquial), 香草 (hoeng¹ cou²) (formal)

  Mandarin: 香草 (zh) (xiāngcǎo)

• Classical Nahuatl: tlīlxōchitl
• Czech: vanilka (cs) f
• Danish: vanilje c
• Esperanto: vanilo
• Finnish: vaniljatanko (when dried)
• French: vanille (fr) f
• Galician: vainilla (gl) f
• German: Vanille (de) f
• Greek: βανίλια (el) f (vanília)
• Icelandic: vanilla f, vanilja f
• Ido: vanilo (io)
• Indonesian: vanila
• Italian: vaniglia (it) f
• Japanese: バニラ (ja) (banira)
• Korean: 바닐라 (ko) (banilla)
• Kurdish: vanîlya

• Macedonian: вани́ла f (vaníla)
• Malagasy: vanila (mg)
• Malay: vanila
• Norman: vanille f (Jersey)
• Norwegian: vaniljestang (no) f
• Portuguese: baunilha (pt) f
• Quechua: waynilla
• Romanian: vanilie (ro) f
• Russian: вани́ль (ru) f (vanílʹ)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: ванила f, ванилија f

  Roman: vanila (sh) f, vanilija (sh) f

• Slovene: vanilja f
• Spanish: vainilla (es) f
• Swedish: vaniljstång c
• Tagalog: baynilya
• Tongan: vanila
• Turkish: vanilya (tr)
• Urdu: ايک خوشبو‏‎ f (aik khushbu)
• Yiddish: וואַנילע‏‎ f (vanile)

natural extract

• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 雲尼拿香油, 云尼拿香油 (wan⁴ nei¹ laa^4-2 hoeng¹ jau⁴ or wan⁴ ni¹ laa^4-2 hoeng¹ jau⁴)

  Mandarin: 香草精 (zh) (xiāngcǎojīng)

• Classical Nahuatl: tlīlxōchitl
• Esperanto: vanilo
• Finnish: vaniljauute
• French: vanille (fr) f
• Galician: vainilla (gl) f
• German: Vanille (de) f
• Greek: βανίλια (el) f (vanília)
• Hebrew: וניל‏‎ (he)

• Icelandic: vanilla f, vanilja f
• Indonesian: vanila
• Manx: vanilley f
• Norman: vanille f (Jersey)
• Portuguese: baunilha (pt) f
• Russian: вани́ль (ru) f (vanílʹ)
• Spanish: vainilla (es) f
• Tagalog: baynilya
• Turkish: vanilya (tr)
• Yiddish: וואַנילע‏‎ f (vanile)

flavor

• Arabic: ڤَانِيلَّا‏‎ f (vanillā), ڤَانِيلِيَا‏‎ f (vaniliyā)

  Egyptian Arabic: ڤانيليا‏‎ f (vanelia)

• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 雲呢拿, 云呢拿 (wan⁴ nei¹ laa^4-2 or wan⁴ ni¹ laa^4-2) (colloquial), 香草 (hoeng¹ cou²) (formal)

  Mandarin: 香草 (zh) (xiāngcǎo)

• Czech: vanilka (cs) f
• Dutch: vanille (nl)
• Esperanto: vanilo
• Finnish: vanilja (fi)
• French: vanille (fr) f
• Galician: vainilla (gl) f
• German: Vanille (de) fVanille- (de)
• Greek: βανίλια (el) f (vanília)
• Icelandic: vanilla f, vanilja f

• Indonesian: vanila
• Italian: vanillina (it) f
• Japanese: バニラ (ja) (banira)
• Korean: 바닐라 (ko) (banilla)
• Macedonian: вани́ла f (vaníla)
• Manx: vanilley f
• Norwegian: vanilje (no) m
• Portuguese: baunilha (pt) f
• Russian: вани́ль (ru) f (vanílʹ)
• Spanish: vainilla (es) f
• Swedish: vanilj (sv)
• Tagalog: baynilya
• Turkish: vanilya (tr)
• Yiddish: וואַנילע‏‎ f (vanile)

artificial extract

• Finnish: vanilliini (fi)
• French: vanille (fr) f
• Galician: vainilla (gl)
• Greek: βανίλια (el) f (vanília)
• Icelandic: vanilla f, vanilja f
• Ido: vanilo (io)
• Macedonian: вани́ла f (vaníla)

• Norman: vanille f (Jersey)
• Portuguese: baunilha (pt) f
• Russian: вани́ль (ru) f (vanílʹ)
• Spanish: vainilla (es) f
• Tagalog: baynilya
• Turkish: vanilya (tr)

Adjective

vanilla (comparative more vanilla, superlative most vanilla)

1. (of flavor, etc.) Of vanilla.
   • 2004, David Mitchell, Cloud Atlas

     A mass of folders and binders. One, vanilla in colour, catches her eye.

2. (colloquial, chiefly computing) Standard, plain, default, unmodified, basic.

   vanilla JavaScript

   • 2001, "Michael Foot", BeebIt 0.32 and BBCFiles 0.29 released (on newsgroup comp.sys.acorn.announce)

     BBCFiles is a BBC file converter that converts between some of the various types of files used by BBC emulators on Acorn & PC formats. It supports 6502Em style applications & scripts, /ssd dfs disc images (supporting watford double catalogue), vanilla directories, /zip of bbc files with /inf files (with limitations) and directory of bbc files with /inf files.

3. (sexuality) Not kinky, not involving BDSM.
   • 2006, Felix Lance Falkon, Gay Art: A Historic Collection, ISBN 1551522055, page 136:

     An uncharacteristically vanilla threesome and non-cute realist rendering - derived paradoxically from tracing drawings rather than photographs.

   • 2010, Chloe Stowe, Hard Water, ISBN 1607774054, page 37:

     While Dominick was more of a vanilla kind of a guy himself, he wasn't a total dunce when it came to the kinkier sides of things.

   • 2014, Christina Thacher, The Negotiation: A BDSM Romance, ISBN 193957305X:

     Sebastian could never do that, be in a marriage with a vanilla woman.

4. Plain; conventional; unimaginative.

Synonyms

• See also Wikisaurus:bare-bones
• (sense: sexuality) normophilic

Translations

of vanilla

• Dutch: vanille-
• Finnish: vanilja- (fi)
• French: de vanille, à la vanille
• Ido: vanilala

• Italian: di vaniglia, alla vaniglia
• Russian: вани́льный (ru) (vanílʹnyj)
• Spanish: vainilla (es) f
• Swedish: vanilj-

standard

• Finnish: tavallinen (fi), vanilja- (fi) (colloquial)

• Russian: обы́чный (ru) m (obýčnyj)

not kinky, not involving BDSM

• Navajo: doo ádíláahgo naanéego, doo ádíláahgo jikʼeedgo (vulgar)

plain; unimaginative

Related terms

• vanillin

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Icelandic

Etymology

From English vanilla, from Spanish vainilla, diminutive of vaina (“pod”), from Latin vāgīna (“sheath”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈvaːnɪlːa/

Noun

vanilla f (genitive singular vanillu, nominative plural vanillur)

1. (usually singular only, uncountable) vanilla

Declension

declension of vanilla

f-w1	singular		plural
	indefinite	definite	indefinite	definite
nominative	vanilla	vanillan	vanillur	vanillurnar
accusative	vanillu	vanilluna	vanillur	vanillurnar
dative	vanillu	vanillunni	vanillum	vanillunum
genitive	vanillu	vanillunnar	vanilla	vanillanna

Derived terms

• vanilluplanta