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Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
plantain
noun
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ A memory of hot suns, with grass burned brown and ripe plantains yellowing the tree of home, touched him.
▪ Add coconut milk and plantains and cook until fruit is tender, not mushy, about 10 minutes.
▪ He speared the plantain to one side of the pan and ladled in four globs of batter.
▪ Opening the brown skin with his fingernail, Mitchell peeled a plantain and sliced the dry-smelling fruit lengthwise into strips.
▪ Species included in the new list include the Sussex Emerald Moth, the sturgeon, floating water plantain and marsh saxifrage.
▪ Trees that bear plantain fruit and nuts.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Plantain

Plantain \Plan"tain\, n. [Cf. F. plantain-arbre, plantanier, Sp. pl['a]ntano, pl['a]tano; prob. same word as plane tree.]

  1. (Bot.) A treelike perennial herb ( Musa paradisiaca) of tropical regions, bearing immense leaves and large clusters of the fruits called plantains. See Musa.

  2. The fruit of this plant. It is long and somewhat cylindrical, slightly curved, and, when ripe, soft, fleshy, and covered with a thick but tender yellowish skin. The plantain is a staple article of food in most tropical countries, especially when cooked.

    Plantain cutter, or Plantain eater (Zo["o]l.), any one of several large African birds of the genus Musophaga, or family Musophagid[ae], especially Musophaga violacea. See Turaco. They are allied to the cuckoos.

    Plantain squirrel (Zo["o]l.), a Java squirrel ( Sciurus plantani) which feeds upon plantains.

    Plantain tree (Bot.), the treelike herb Musa paradisiaca. See def. 1 (above).

Plantain

Plantain \Plan"tain\, n. [F., fr. L. plantago. Cf. Plant.] (Bot.) Any plant of the genus Plantago, but especially the Plantago major, a low herb with broad spreading radical leaves, and slender spikes of minute flowers. It is a native of Europe, but now found near the abode of civilized man in nearly all parts of the world.

Indian plantain. (Bot.) See under Indian.

Mud plantain, a homely North American aquatic plant ( Heteranthera reniformis), having broad, reniform leaves.

Rattlesnake plantain, an orchidaceous plant ( Goodyera pubescens), with the leaves blotched and spotted with white.

Ribwort plantain. See Ribwort.

Robin's plantain, the Erigeron bellidifolium, a common daisylike plant of North America.

Water plantain, a plant of the genus Alisma, having acrid leaves, and formerly regarded as a specific against hydrophobia.
--Loudon.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
plantain

"banana," 1550s, plantan, from Spanish plátano, plántano, probably from Carib palatana "banana" (Arawak pratane), and altered by association with Spanish plátano "plane tree," from Medieval Latin plantanus "plane tree," itself altered (by association with Latin planta "plant") from Latin platanus (see plane (n.4)). So called from the shape of its leaves. There is no similarity or relation between this plant and plantain (n.2).

plantain

"weed of the genus Plantago," mid-13c., from Anglo-French plaunteyne, Old French plantain, from Latin plantaginem (nominative plantago), the common weed, from planta "sole of the foot" (see plant (n.)); so called from its flat leaves.

Wiktionary
plantain

Etymology 1 n. 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. Etymology 2

n. 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.

WordNet
plantain
  1. n. any of numerous plants of the genus Plantago; mostly small roadside or dooryard weeds with elliptic leaves and small spikes of very small flowers; seeds of some used medicinally

  2. a banana tree bearing hanging clusters of edible angular greenish starchy fruits; tropics and subtropics [syn: plantain tree, Musa paradisiaca]

  3. starchy banana-like fruit; eaten (always cooked) as a staple vegetable throughout the tropics

Wikipedia
Plantain (disambiguation)

Plantain may refer to:

Banana related
  • Cooking plantain - refers to large, angular fruits of the genus Musa (bananas, plantains) that are used in cooking. Other Musa fruit eaten primarily cooked, i.e. East African Highland bananas, are discussed separately
    • True plantains – a particular subgroup
    • Rhino Horn banana – a particular subgroup
  • Fried plantain - a dish cooked from cooking plantain
Other
  • Plantago – herbaceous plant not related to bananas (e.g. "Broadleaf plantain")

Usage examples of "plantain".

He twittered a bit and then prescribed pulverized avocado seed and crushed plantain in raw, unfermented maguey juice.

Along with them were plantains, starchy large bananas, and misshapen tomatoes with horny skins.

Winding picturesquely among the trees, well-worn trails led to the Goat-House, to the western slope where Williams lived, to the Aute Valley where the principal gardens of the cloth-plant had been laid out, to the yam and sweet-potato patches and plantain walks, to the rock cisterns Christian had insisted on building in case of drought, to the Rope, and to the saw pit, still used occasionally when someone was in need of plank.

Like so many works of man in Boca Grande the Jockey Club is less than it seems: an aluminum-sided bungalow with rattan card tables and a menu written in French but translated in the kitchen into ambiguous gumbos based mainly on plantains and rice.

The native men were employed as occasion demanded, and during the early months of the settlement it was they who did the fishing for the community and searched for the wild products of the island -- plantains, taro, candlenuts for lighting purposes, and the like.

Arctic bramble, the sloe, goat-weed, Mexican goosefoot, speedwell, wild geranium, veronica, wormwood, juniper, saffron, carduus benedictus, trefoil, wood-sorrel, pepper, mace, scurry grass, plantain, and betony.

At Dry River, a higgler had sold them mangoes and plantains and a necklace of mudfish and god-dammies, salt-dried and fried crisp, but all that now remained were fruit skins and fish tails.

The virtues of the greater Plantain as an application to wounds and sores were known of old.

And Minarii had brought a cluster of green drinking coconuts and a bunch of fine plantains he had found in the depths of the valley.

Smith wandered away into the bush and was back before long, with a cluster of drinking coconuts and a broad leaf of the plantain, to serve as a cloth for their rustic meal.

Prudence now took some eggs and half a dozen plantains from a basket hanging out of reach of rats, and dropped them into the boiling water.

Taurua went to the outdoor kitchen, returning with some cold baked yams and plantains, which she placed on the table.

He was followed by Te Moa, who carried a bunch of ripe plantains on his back.

The children now returned, bringing drinking nuts and a dozen great yellow plantains in a wooden bowl, together with other fruits which were strange to the mate.

As they were about to seat themselves at the table, a woman of forty or forty-five came in through the back door, bearing a large platter containing baked pig and heaped up with sweet potatoes, yams, and plantains, all smoking hot.