banyan
/ˈbæn.jæn/ noun, proper noun
Forms banyans banian bannian
- noun An Indian trader, merchant, cashier, or money changer.
- noun A tropical Indian fig tree, Ficus benghalensis, that has many aerial roots.
- noun Various other trees of the Ficus subgenus Urostigma, especially Ficus pertusa (Central American banyan) and Ficus microcarpa (Chinese banyan or Malayan banyan).
- noun A type of loose gown worn in India.
- noun (India, Pakistan) A vest; an undershirt; a singlet.
- noun (UK, naval slang, dated) A camping excursion on shore, to give a ship's crew a break from shipboard routine.
- proper noun A locality in the Shire of Buloke, north western Victoria, Australia
Synonyms
banyan tree banian banian tree Indian banyan East Indian fig tree Ficus bengalensis
Etymology
From Portuguese baniano, from Arabic بَنِيَان (baniyān), from Gujarati વાણિયો (vāṇiyo, “merchant”), from Sanskrit वाणिज (vāṇijá), from earlier वणिज् (vaṇíj, “merchant, trader”). The name appears to have been first bestowed popularly on a famous tree of this species growing near Bandar Abbas, under which the Bannians, or Hindu traders settled at that port, had built a little pagoda. Doublet of bunnia.
Webster’s 1913
- noun A tree of the same genus as the common fig, and called the Indian fig (Ficus Indica), whose branches send shoots to the ground, which take root and become additional trunks, until it may be the tree covers some acres of ground and is able to shelter thousands of men.
Etymology [See Banian.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “banyan”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details