plantain
pronunciation
How to pronounce plantain in British English:
UK [ˈplæntɪn]
How to pronounce plantain in American English:
US [ˈplæntən]
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- Noun:
- any of numerous plants of the genus Plantago; mostly small roadside or dooryard weeds with elliptic leaves and small spikes of very small flowers; seeds of some used medicinally
- a banana tree bearing hanging clusters of edible angular greenish starchy fruits; tropics and subtropics
- starchy banana-like fruit; eaten (always cooked) as a staple vegetable throughout the tropics
Word Origin
- plantain
- plantain: Two entirely unrelated plants have the name plantain. Both get it from their broad leaves. One, an insignificant-looking weed [14], comes via Old French plantain from Latin plantāgō, a derivative of planta ‘sole of the foot’ (source of English plantigrade and possibly plant). The other, a tropical plant of the banana family [16], was originally named by the Spaniards plántano ‘plane tree’, a descendant of the same Latin source as produced English plane (which etymologically means ‘broad-leaved’). This was adopted by English and quickly altered to the more familiar plantain.=> plan, plant; plane
- plantain (n.1)
- "banana," 1550s, plantan, from Spanish plátano, plántano, probably from Carib palatana "banana" (Arawak pratane), and altered by association with Spanish plátano "plane tree," from Medieval Latin plantanus "plane tree," itself altered (by association with Latin planta "plant") from Latin platanus (see plane (n.4)). So called from the shape of its leaves. There is no similarity or relation between this plant and plantain (n.2).
- plantain (n.2)
- "weed of the genus Plantago," mid-13c., from Anglo-French plaunteyne, Old French plantain, from Latin plantaginem (nominative plantago), the common weed, from planta "sole of the foot" (see plant (n.)); so called from its flat leaves.