plantain

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈplant(e)ɪn/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈplæntɪn/, IPA^(key): /ˈplæn.teɪn/

Borrowed from Anglo-Norman plainteine et al., Old French plaintain, from Latin plantāginem (“plantain”), accusative of plantāgō, from planta (“sole”), a nasalized form of Proto-Indo-European *plat (“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 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 2007, p. 225:

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

   • 2003, Michael Hofmann, translating Ernst Jünger, Storm of Steel, Penguin 2004, p. 41:

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

• waybread
• fleawort

• common plantain
• greater plantain
• mud plantain
• ribwort plantain
• robin's plantain
• water plantain

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

From Spanish plantano, obsolete variant of plátano, from Galibi Carib platana (“banana”).

plantain (Musa)fruit slices frying

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.

• For quotations of use of this term, see Citations:plantain.

• banana plantain
• bocadillo plantain
• cooking plantain
• plantain cutter
• plantain eater (Musophagidae)
• plantain squirrel (Callosciurus notatus)
• plantain tree

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

• plainant

• IPA^(key): /plɑ̃.tɛ̃/

From Old French plantain, from Latin plantāgō, 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 le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

From Latin plantāgō, plantāginem.

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

1. plantain, any plant of genus Plantago

• English: plantain
• French: plantain