plantain

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈplæntɪn/, /ˈplæn.teɪn/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈplæntɪn/, /ˈplæn.teɪn/
• (Caribbean) IPA^(key): /ˈplɑːntɪn/, [ˈplaː(n)ʔn̩]
• Hyphenation: plan‧tain

Inherited from Middle English planteyne, planteyn, from Anglo-Norman plainteine et al., Old French plaintain, from Latin plantāgō, from planta (“sole of the foot”), a nasalized form of Proto-Indo-European *pleth₂- (“flat; to spread”), because of the broad, flat shape of the plantain leaves.

plantain (plural plantains)

1. A plant of the genus Plantago, with a rosette of sessile leaves about 10 cm (4") long with a narrow part instead of a petiole, and with a spike inflorescence with the flower spacing varying widely among the species. See also psyllium.
   • 1653, Nicholas Culpeper, The English Physician Enlarged, Folio Society, published 2007, page 225:

     The roots of Plantain and Pellitory of Spain beaten to powder and put into hollow teeth, takes away the pains of them.

   • 2003, Ernst Jünger, translated by Michael Hofmann, Storm of Steel, Penguin, published 2004, page 41:

     The paths too are overgrown, but easily identified by the presence on them of round-leaved plantains.

• waybread, fleawort

• Plantago on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Plantago on Wikispecies.Wikispecies
• Category:Plantago on Wikimedia Commons.Wikimedia Commons

From Spanish plantano (obsolete variant of plátano), from Latin platanus, from Ancient Greek πλάτανος (plátanos).

plantain (plural plantains)

1. A plant in the genus Musa, the genus that includes banana, but with lower sugar content than banana.
2. The fruit of the plant, usually cooked before eating and used like potatoes.
   • 2002, Edith Grossman, transl., chapter 1, in Living to Tell the Tale, translation of Vivir para contarla by Gabriel García Márquez:

     We were sitting at the tables in the port, eating an unhurried breakfast of delicious mojarra fish from the swamp and slices of fried green plantain, when my mother resumed the offensive in her personal war.

• plantain on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Musa on Wikispecies.Wikispecies
• Category:Musa on Wikimedia Commons.Wikimedia Commons
• banana

• plainant

Eventually from Latin plantaginem, accusative of plantago.

• IPA^(key): /plantai̯n/ [plãn̪.t̪ãĩ̯n]
• Rhymes: -antai̯n, -ai̯n
• Hyphenation: plan‧tain

plantain inan

1. plantain

   Synonym: zain-belar

• “plantain”, in Euskaltzaindiaren Hiztegia [Dictionary of the Basque Academy] (in Basque), Euskaltzaindia [Royal Academy of the Basque Language]
• “plantain”, in Orotariko Euskal Hiztegia [General Basque Dictionary], Euskaltzaindia, 1987–2005

• IPA^(key): /plɑ̃.tɛ̃/

Inherited from Old French plantain, from Latin plantāginem.

plantain m (plural plantains)

1. plantain, any plant of genus Plantago

From banane plantain.

plantain m (plural plantains)

1. plantain (fruit of the genus Musa)

• “plantain”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

From Latin plantāgō, plantāginem.

plantain oblique singular, m (oblique plural plantainz, nominative singular plantainz, nominative plural plantain)

1. plantain, any plant of genus Plantago

• English: plantain
• French: plantain