plantain

noun

1. a tropical plant, Musa paradisiaca, of the banana family, resembling the banana.
2. its fruit, eaten cooked as a staple food in tropical regions.

noun

1. any plant of the genus Plantago, especially P. major, a weed with large, spreading leaves close to the ground and long, slender spikes of small flowers.

noun

1. any of various N temperate plants of the genus Plantago, esp P. major (great plantain), which has a rosette of broad leaves and a slender spike of small greenish flowers: family PlantaginaceaeSee also ribwort

noun

1. a large tropical musaceous plant, Musa paradisiaca
2. the green-skinned banana-like fruit of this plant, eaten as a staple food in many tropical regions

n.1“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). n.2“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.