# banana

Pronunciation: US say "buh-NA-nuh" /bəˈnæ.nə/; UK say "buh-NAH-nuh" /bəˈnɑː.nə/

## Noun

1. A long curved tropical fruit with soft, sweet, creamy flesh and a yellow skin when ripe, growing in bunches.
   - Simple: A long, curved fruit with a yellow skin you peel off and soft, sweet flesh inside.
   - _She added a sliced banana to her bowl of oatmeal._
   - _The monkeys peeled their bananas with surprising skill._
2. A tropical, tree-like plant of the genus Musa, bearing clusters of bananas and large, elongated leaves.
   - Simple: A tall tropical plant with large, long leaves that grows bunches of bananas.
   - _A single banana can reach over twenty feet, its huge leaves shading the soil._
   - _Storms flattened the bananas across the plantation overnight._
4. A yellow color resembling that of a banana's skin.
   - Simple: A bright yellow color, like the skin of a ripe banana.
   - _The designer chose a soft banana for the nursery walls._
   - _The vintage convertible was repainted in banana, a shade that turned heads at every car show._
5. A slang term for the penis. *(slang)*
   - Simple: A funny slang word for a man's penis.
   - _He joked that the cold water had shriveled his banana._
   - _She wasn't impressed by his bragging about his banana._
6. A curving kick that sends the ball along a bent, banana-shaped path.
   - Simple: A kick that makes the ball curve through the air in a banana shape.
   - _The midfielder whipped in a banana that dipped under the crossbar._
   - _A well-struck banana can swerve past an entire defensive wall._
7. An offensive term for a person of East or Southeast Asian descent seen as having lost their own culture or language and taken on white Western ways.
   - Simple: An offensive word for an Asian person who is said to act 'white' and has lost touch with their own culture.
   - _Some in the community dismissed her as a banana because she had distanced herself from their traditions._
   - _He resented being branded a banana simply for defending his white manager._

## Adjective

3. Curved like a banana, especially describing a ball that bends in flight.
   - Simple: Curved in shape, like the bend of the fruit, especially a ball flying through the air.
   - _The striker curled a banana free kick over the wall and into the net._
   - _A strong crosswind gave the throw a pronounced banana curve._

## Other meanings

- (noun) A poorly held handstand in which the back arches into a banana-like curve, common among beginners.
- (noun) An informal unit of radiation exposure equal to the dose absorbed from eating a single banana.
- (noun) In functional programming, a catamorphism: an operation that folds a data structure down into a single summary value.

## Origin

English borrowed banana from Portuguese or Spanish banana, itself derived from a Niger-Congo language of the Guinea region, though the precise origin is unclear. Possible related forms include Wolof banaana, Eastern Maninkakan banana, and Vai ɓaana, perhaps ultimately from Arabic banān ('fingertip, banana'); some sources, however, suggest the Wolof form actually came from Portuguese.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/banana (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).