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. Any 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.

   • 2007 December 26, Julia Moskin, “A Celebration of the New Year Ushers in a Bit of Japan”, in The New York Times‎^[1], New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 26 November 2022:

     She uses broccoli rabe instead of aka takana (spicy mustard greens), shops in the Caribbean markets of her Washington Heights neighborhood for batatas rather than Japanese satsumaimo (yellow sweet potatoes), and has learned to love the local mofongo, the Dominican version of mashed plantains with lots of garlic.

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

• plainant

Eventually from Latin plantaginem, accusative of plantago. The identical spelling to its English translation is coincidental.

• 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/

• Audio (France (Lyon)):

  (file)

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