banyan

Meaning

1. An Indian trader, merchant, cashier, or money changer.
2. A tropical Indian fig tree, Ficus benghalensis, that has many aerial roots.
3. Various other trees of the Ficus subgenus Urostigma, especially Ficus pertusa (Central American banyan) and Ficus microcarpa (Chinese banyan or Malayan banyan).
4. A type of loose gown worn in India.
5. (India, Pakistan) A vest; an undershirt; a singlet.
6. (British, dated, slang) A camping excursion on shore, to give a ship's crew a break from shipboard routine.

Synonyms

banian

banyan tree

Indian banyan

strangler fig

banian tree

East Indian fig tree

Ficus bengalensis

jersey

🇯🇪

mangrove

merchant

sweater

vest

bough

pull-over

bargat

baobab

Ficus benghalensis

businessman

cactus

🌵

ficus

indian fig

Translations

banian

baniano

waringin

baniana

Indische vijgenboom

figueira-da-índia

Banyanbaum

Waringinbaum

Waringin

Indische vijgeboom

indischer Feigenbaum

banyan

Ficus Benghalensis

Pronounced as (IPA)

/ˈbæn.jən/

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.