bananas
bananas Lexical Profile
bananas Game Scores & Validity
• noun
Plural form of banana: elongated, curved tropical fruits of the genus Musa, having soft, sweet, starchy flesh enclosed in a yellow or green rind that peels easily.
"She sliced two ripe bananas over her morning oatmeal."
Plural form of banana: large, fast-growing tropical herbaceous plants of the family Musaceae (genus Musa), native to Southeast Asia and cultivated across the tropics for their hanging clusters of edible fruit and broad, spirally arranged leaves.
"Groves of towering bananas lined the humid riverbank."
• adjective
Insane, crazy, or wildly excited, angry, or irrational (used informally, especially in the phrase 'go bananas').
"The fans went completely bananas when the band walked onto the stage for an encore."
Word Nuance & Usage
When used as a slang adjective meaning 'crazy' or 'wildly excited', 'bananas' is almost exclusively restricted to predicative positions (e.g., 'The crowd went bananas') and is rarely placed directly before a noun.
• Nearby Words
Word Origin & Etymology
Borrowed in the late 16th century via Portuguese or Spanish from a West African language, most likely Wolof 'banaana'. The slang sense meaning 'crazy' or 'wildly excited' emerged in 20th-century American English, likely inspired by the energetic behavior of monkeys in the presence of the fruit.