Also anana. [So in most of the languages of Europe; app. from a native Peruvian name Nanas, it having been first seen by Europeans in Peru, and described under the name Nanas by André Thevenet, a monk, in 1555. Through mistaking the final -s for a plural sign, some have made the sing. anana.]
1. The pine-apple plant (Ananassa sativa) or fruit.
1613. Purchas, Pilgr., I. V. xii. 431. Of their fruits Ananas is reckoned one of the best: In taste like an Apricocke, in shew a farre off like an Artichoke, but without prickles, very sweet of sent.
1714. Mandeville, Fab. Bees (1733), II. 219. The first ananas, or pine-apple, that was brought to perfection in England, grew in his [Sir M. Decker’s] garden at Richmond.
1727. Thomson, Summer, 685. Witness, thou best anâna, thou the pride Of vegetable life.
1811. T. Baldwin (title), Short Practical Directions for the Culture of the Ananas, or Pine-apple Tree.
1841. D’Israeli, Amen. Lit., II. 229. [Rawleigh] had given … England the Virginian tobacco, and perhaps the delicious ananas.
2. An allied West Indian fruit, the Penguin (Bromelia Pinguin). J.
