plantain

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The variety of the banana thus used is, however, a much larger kind than any of those ordinarily found in our Northern markets, and is known as the plantain.

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Definitions (20)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (3)

  1. noun Any of various plants of the genus Plantago that produce dense spikes of small greenish flowers, especially either of two Eurasian weeds, P. major or P. lanceolata. Also called ribwort.
  2. noun A large, tropical, treelike herb (Musa paradisiaca) of southeast Asia, resembling the banana and bearing similar fruit.
  3. noun The fruit of this plant, used as a staple food in tropical regions.

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Etymologies (4)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (2)

  1. Middle English, from Old French, from Latin plantāgō, plantāgin-, from planta, sole of the foot (from its broad leaves); see plat- in Indo-European roots.
  2. Spanish plátano, plántano, plane tree, plantain, from Latin platanus; see plane4.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (2)

  1. Formerly also plan-tan, plaintain; from Middle English planteyne, plawntcyne, from Old French plantain, French plantain = Provencal plantage = Cat, plantatge = Spanish llanten (also, after F., plan-taina) = Portuguese tanchagem = Italian piantaggine, from Latin plantago (plantagin-), plantain, so called from its broad spreading leaf; from the same source as planta, a spreading sucker, a plant, and planta, the sole of the foot: sec plant, plant.
  2. Formerly also plantan; from Old French plantain, plane-tree, = Spanish plántano, also plátano, plantain, plane tree: see plane.
 

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/ˈplæntən/
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