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Etymology and origin of the Portuguese word banana

Confidence
Probable
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
1562 More words from the 16th century
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Portuguese banana
English banana
Spanish banana
From the same root
Romanian banană ← banana

Pronunciation

  • Brazil: /baˈnɐ̃.nɐ/, /bɐˈnɐ.nɐ/[1]
  • Portugal: /bɐˈnɐ.nɐ/[1]
  • Northern, Portugal: /bɐˈna.nɐ/[1]
  • Northeast-Brazil: /bɐ̃ˈnɐ̃.nɐ/[1]

Forms

banana f (plural bananas)[1]

Etymology

It is a word of West Africa: Cunha, the DLP and Michaelis take it from an unidentified language of the Guinea coast, and Machado says that the Portuguese learnt it in Guinea.[2][3][4][5] Wiktionary names Wolof banaana, Eastern Maninkakan banana and Vai ꕒꘌꕯ (ɓaana) as possible sources or cognates, but notes that the Wolof word may itself come from Portuguese.[1] Houaiss calls the origin doubtful and reports two other proposals: Galibi, a Carib language of Amapá, and an Arabic word for “finger”.[6]

The Arabic proposal goes back to Robertson Smith, quoted by Yule, who thought the likeness to the Arabic word could not be chance and that the Arabs might have carried fruit and name to West Africa.[7][5] Dalgado objected that the word would then have left traces on the east coast, while Machado did not find that objection decisive.[7][5] The Porto Editora dictionary derives the word from Arabic.[8] The Galibi origin was put forward by Macedo Soares, according to Nascentes.[9]

Friederici found the word in none of the early chroniclers of Spanish America, and concluded that the Portuguese brought plant and name together from Africa, from Guinea above all, to Brazil.[10] Corominas agrees that the word is African.[11] Portuguese passed it on to Spanish, where the older name is plátano, and to the other languages of Europe: Spanish banana, French banane, Dutch banaan, German Banane and the English banana.[12][1][13]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss, following Corominas, dates the first Portuguese record to 1562.[6][11] In the 16th century Garcia da Orta's Colóquios say of the Indian fig that também há estes figos em Guiné, chamam-lhes bananas “these figs are also found in Guinea, where they call them bananas”.[5][7] Dalgado notes that the older Portuguese name for the fruit in Asia was figo da Índia, which banana later replaced in Portugal.[7]

Semantic evolution

Writers of the late 16th century use the word for the fruit of West Africa, Angola, São Tomé and Brazil: in 1576 Gaspar Afonso writes that it is called plátano in the Spanish Indies, figo in India and banana in Brazil.[7] The plantation, bananal, is recorded from 1585 and the plant, bananeira, in the 16th century.[2][7]

The sense “weak, spineless person” appears in the 18th century: Bluteau's supplement of 1727 says that the coward is called banana in contempt, and Tolentino calls a man an infeliz banana.[7][5][2] Bananzola, of the same sense, is recorded in 1813.[2] Vieira's dictionary lists the Brazilian varieties, among them banana-prata and banana-maçã, and the saying that someone likes a thing like a monkey likes bananas.[14]

Brazilian Portuguese gave the word the vulgar senses “penis” and an obscene arm gesture, and called a stick of dynamite a banana de dinamite.[6][1] In Portugal it also names a hairstyle and an elongated electrical plug.[3][8] In north-eastern Brazil it is a cut of beef from the back of the thigh.[15]

Timeline

  • 1562 – first record.[6][11]
  • 16th century – Garcia da Orta's Colóquios attribute the name to Guinea.[5]
  • 1575 – Garcia Simões mentions bananas brought from inland Angola.[7]
  • 1576 – Gaspar Afonso says the fruit is called bananas in Brazil.[7]
  • 1585 – bananaes in Angola, the first record of bananal.[7][2]
  • 1590s – English banana, from Spanish or Portuguese.[13]
  • 1727 – Bluteau's supplement: banana for a coward.[7]
  • 1813 – first record of bananzola.[2]
  • 1871 – Vieira lists the Brazilian varieties of the fruit.[14]
  • 1899 – first record of bananada.[2]

Meanings

Noun

  1. banana, the fruit of the banana plant, long and curved, with a sweet starchy pulp.[6][1][16]
  2. The banana plant, bananeira.[6][1][16]
  3. Any fruit shaped like a banana.[6]
  4. (chiefly Brazil, vulgar) The penis.[6][1]
  5. (Brazil, informal) An obscene gesture made with a bent arm and clenched fist; manguito.[6][1][17]
  6. (Brazil) A stick of dynamite: banana de dinamite.[6][17]
  7. (Portugal) A hairstyle in which the hair is rolled into a vertical roll at the back of the head.[6][3]
  8. (Portugal) An elongated electrical plug.[3][8]
  9. (ichthyology) The bonefish, ubarana.[6]
  10. (informal, derogatory, of either gender) A spineless person, without energy or will of their own; a coward.[6][3][16]

Adjective

  1. (informal, derogatory) Lacking energy or a will of one's own.[3][8]

Word family

  • bananada
  • bananal
  • bananeira
  • bananicultura
  • bananzola
  • banana-da-terra
  • banana-pão
  • embananar

Usage notes

Escorregar numa casca de banana “to slip on a banana skin” means to fall into a trap.[8] Wiktionary lists república das bananas “banana republic”.[1]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. banana
  3. ^ a b c d e f Academia das Ciências de Lisboa, Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, revised online edition (2023–) of the Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa Contemporânea (2001), https://dicionario.acad-ciencias.pt, p. s.v. banana
  4. ^ Michaelis: Moderno Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, São Paulo: Melhoramentos (online as Michaelis Dicionário Brasileiro da Língua Portuguesa, https://michaelis.uol.com.br), p. s.v. banana
  5. ^ a b c d e f Machado, José Pedro (1987), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., 5 vols., Lisboa: Livros Horizonte, p. s.v. banana
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. banana
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Dalgado, Sebastião Rodolfo (1919–1921), Glossário luso-asiático, 2 vols., Coimbra: Imprensa da Universidade, p. 1, 89
  8. ^ a b c d e Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 1242
  9. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1955), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 1: Nomes comuns, Rio de Janeiro (1st ed. 1932, preface by W. Meyer-Lübke), p. 61
  10. ^ Friederici, Georg (1947), Amerikanistisches Wörterbuch, Hamburg: Cram, de Gruyter, p. 74
  11. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 484
  12. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. banana
  13. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com, p. s.v. banana
  14. ^ a b Vieira, Frei Domingos (1871–1874), Grande Diccionario Portuguez ou Thesouro da lingua portugueza, 5 vols., Porto: Ernesto Chardron e Bartholomeu H. de Moraes, p. 1, 716
  15. ^ Navarro, Fred (2004), Dicionário do Nordeste, São Paulo: Estação Liberdade, p. s.v. banana
  16. ^ a b c Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. banana
  17. ^ a b Aulete, Francisco Júlio Caldas, Dicionário contemporâneo da língua portuguesa (1st ed. 1881), online as Aulete Digital, Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, https://aulete.com.br, p. s.v. banana
Cite this entry

“Banana.” Etymologically, 15 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/pt/banana. Accessed 16 Nov. 2026.

Last edited on . ·