BANANA

The banana plant is the largest herbaceous plant with a flower. Around 1516 the banana plant was introduced by the Portuguese to America from Africa. On that occasion the word became part of the Portuguese and Spanish languages. The banana, which had not yet been imported into Europe, was described in 1601 as "the fruit that smells like a rose". The word banana may come from the Arabic banan, meaning "finger", but it is thought more likely to derive from a sub-Saharan West African language, perhaps from the Wolof language word banaana.