Also 7 bonana, bonano. [a. Pg. or Sp. banana (the fruit), banano (the tree), given by De Orta (1563), and Pigafetta, as the native name in Guinea (Congo).]
1. A tree (Musa sapientum) cultivated largely in tropical and subtropical climates, especially in the islands of the Atlantic and Pacific; it grows to a height of 20 feet, and has its stem marked with purple spots and streaks.
1697. Dampier, Voy. (1729), I. 316. The Bonano Tree is exactly like the Plantain.
1810. Southey, Kehama, XVI. v. That, like the broad banana growing, Raised their long wrinkled leaves of purple hue.
1830. Lindley, Nat. Syst. Bot., 270. The young shoots of the Banana are eaten as a delicate vegetable.
2. The fruit of this tree, growing in clusters of angular, finger-like berries, containing within their rind a luscious and highly nutritious pulp.
[1563. Garcia de Orta, Simples e Drogues, 93 b. Tambem ha estes figos em Guiné, chamam lhe bananas.]
1597. Hartwell, Pigafetta’s Congo, in Coll. Trav. (1745), II. 553. Other fruits there are, termed Banana, which we verily think to be the Muses of Egypt and Soria.
1613. Purchas, Pilgr., I. V. xvi. 452. Amboyna bringeth forth … Coquos, Bonana’s … and other fruits.
1796. Stedman, Surinam, I. ix. 205. Refreshed with … plaintains, bananas, oranges.
1823. Byron, Island, IV. viii. The ripe banana from the mellow hill.
3. attrib., as in banana-leaf, -tree (see sense 1); banana-bird, a gregarious West Indian bird (Xanthornus icterus), belonging to the Starling family.
1845. Darwin, Voy. Nat., xviii. It rained very heavily, but the good thatch of banana-leaves kept us dry.
