banana n.
1. (US) a stupid or worthless person, a simpleton [? the fruit is soft adj. (1) and yellow adj. (4)].
Fighting Blood 296: Shut up, you ingrateful [sic] banana! | ||
Classics in Sl. 4: One Punch McTague would be a better moniker for this banana, as that’s all he lasted! | ||
Yes Man’s Land 229: Are you engaged to me or this prancin’ Gordon banana? | ||
[song title] Banana Man Blues. | ||
Deadly Streets (1983) 110: The other boys had mothers, but he had a banana! A looney tune. | ‘Kid Killer’ in||
(con. 1950s) Age of Rock 2 (1970) 102: She would certainly be turned off if he were [...] a banana. | ‘The Fifties’ in Eisen||
Campus Sl. Oct. 1: banana – a person who acts foolish or idiotic. | ||
Birmingham Post Herald (AL) 27 Oct. 1: Mondale has called Bob [Dole] a bananna [sic]. | ||
Fort Apache, The Bronx 283: That fuckin’ banana. | ||
(con. 1960) My Secret Hist. (1990) 126: They don’t want a banana, man. They want class. | ||
London Fields 293: Be no good at fighting, decided Keith as he climbed the stairs. A total banana. | ||
Shooting Dr. Jack (2002) 86: I can’t believe I wanna quit my job and come work for these two bananas. |
2. the shape.
(a) the penis, thus ? an act of sexual intercourse (see cite 1915).
[ | London-Spy 14 336: The Bonana-Tree, which bears an Evil Fruit, of which Women are most wonderful Lovers: Beneath its Umbrage are a great number of the kind Sex, contending for the Wind falls; and some are so unreasonable, that notwithstanding they have Gathered up more than they are able to stick in their Girdles [...] some measuring what they had pick’d up by their Spans, to try whether the Size was Standard; others Quarrelling for those of the largest Growth, like so many Sows for a great Apple]. | |
🎵 I'm Bert, Bert, and royalty’s hurt, / When they ask me to dine I say ‘No / I’ve just had a banana with Lady Diana / I’m Burlington Bertie from Bow. | [perf. Ella Shields] ‘Burlington Bertie from Bow’||
🎵 You’re worse than that, old, loose and green, / You have no banana all this week; / So, if you don’t give me what I want / I’m gonna get it somewhere else! | ‘If You Don’t Give Me What I Want’||
🎵 And I’m tellin’ you baby, I sure ain’t gonna deny, / let me put my banana in your fruit basket, then I’ll be satisfied. | (?) ‘Banana in Your Fruit Basket’||
in Limerick (1953) 83: There was a young Jewess named Hannah / Who sucked off her lover’s banana. | ||
(con. 1920s) Hoods (1953) 315: Standing like a mope in the middle of the street with my banana in my hands. | ||
5000 Adult Sex Words and Phrases. | ||
Great Santini (1977) 313: One thing led to another and before you knew it my big, hairy banana was whistlin’ Dixie when it struck gold in them thar hills. | ||
(con. 1966) Lords of Discipline 222: I’d love to stick a big, hot, hairy banana in that sweet piece of Italian poon-tang. | ||
Dict. of Invective (1991) 35: The banana suggests the penis, therefore sex, as in a popular English music hall song of the WW1 period. ‘I had a banana / with Lady Diana’. | ||
Snapper 52: He was just a big thick monkey. – Lookin’ for somwewhere to stick his banana, wha’, said Yvonne. They screamed. | ||
(con. 1964-65) Sex and Thugs and Rock ’n’ Roll 267: Any one of [the girls] would have peeled his banana in a flash. | ||
Ebonics Primer at www.dolemite.com 🌐 banana Definition: [...] 2. the penis in expressions such as ‘have one’s banana peeled’. | ||
Wire ser. 2 ep. 8 [TV script] ‘What d’you know? A pussy that’s got some grapes on him.’ ‘Banana too’. | ‘Duck and Cover’||
New Statesman 23-29 Aug. 36/3: Beach bars advertise cocktails with names that are well-used euphemisms for a large penis [...] ‘Big Bamboo,’ ‘Dirty Banana,’ ‘Jamaican Steel’. |
(b) (US Und.) a homosexual [like the SE banana he is a bent adj. (6) fruit n. (2)].
Scarlet Pansy 150: Here one heard fruit, banana, meat, fish, tomato, cream, dozens of everyday words used with double meaning. | ||
Sex Variants. | ‘Lang. of Homosexuality’ Appendix VII in Henry
(c) a tube used for snorting cocaine.
in Little Legs 192: banana tube used for snorting cocaine. |
3. the colour.
(a) (US black, also bananaskin) a light-skinned black person, esp. an attractive woman; one of the many terms that equate women with food; she is yellow adj. (2a); also attrib.
Orig. Hbk of Harlem Jive 12: I’m stiffing the stroll on the flag spot when up pops a fine banana with a cluck stud hanging on her crook. | ||
If He Hollers 51: [A] short, squat, black, harelipped Negro with a fine banana-skin chick on his arm. | ||
‘Back Door Stuff’ 27 Nov. [synd. col.] The problem of finding which room that peeled banana belonged in when she was found wandering down the lobby. | ||
City at Bay 125: The punk with him was Danny ‘Banana Boy’ Pong. Called Banana Boy because of his preference for white girls. | ||
Ebonics Primer at www.dolemite.com 🌐 banana Definition: 1.a sexually attractive mulatto or light black woman. From the yellow color [...] Example: Mariah Carey? Mmmm, I’d like to eat that banana! | ||
Portable Promised Land (ms.) 156: We Words (My Favorite Things) [...] Colorstruck. Babylon. Bananas. |
(b) a derog. term for an Asian who has chosen to adopt white, Western values, they are ‘yellow outside but white inside’.
Wall Street Journal 8 Aug. 9: Young protesters have picketed S.I. Hayakawa [...] calling him a ‘banana’ — yellow on the outside, white inside — the equivalent of the blacks’ epithet ‘Oreo’. | ||
Sl. and Sociability 121: Minority students who act white are identified with slang, for example, apples for ‘Native Americans’, bananas for ‘Asians’, and oreos for ‘African Americans’. | ||
Ebonics Primer at www.dolemite.com 🌐 banana Definition: [...] 3. a person of East Asian descent who acts ‘too much’ like a Caucasian. Yellow on the outside, but white on the inside. | ||
Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. 5: banana Disparaging term for a New Zealand-born Chinese [...] used by Chinese immigrants about local Chinese from 1980s. | ||
🌐 I am an Asian-American of Chinese heritage. I arrived in Taipei from Washington, D.C., four months ago, and I am a ‘banana’: white on the inside, yellow on the outside. People have remarked how interesting it must be for ‘bananas’ like myself to be ‘back home’ in Asia. | at Taiwan Ho! 18 July
4. in monetary uses [it is ‘sweet and acceptable’].
(a) (Aus.) a £1 note.
DSUE (8th edn). | ||
Godson 49: Seven hundred bananas a night. | ||
What Do You Reckon (1997) [ebook] 250 bananas for three hours of stuffing around isn’t bad dough. | ‘Public Dis-Service’ in
(b) one dollar.
Without Reservations [movie script]. | ||
Last Detail 182: That kid Meadows and his eight years for a lousy forty fucking bananas. | ||
(con. 1967) Lords of Discipline 415: We just laid over fifty bananas on him. |
(c) in pl., money.
It Was An Accident 158: They making very big bananas on them Porsches. |
5. a corrupt policeman [coined during the 1970s investigation of London’s Special Patrol Group, declared to be ‘yellow, bent and hanging around in bunches’].
Lowspeak 19: Bananas – Special Patrol Group: ‘They hang around in bunches and are yellow and bent’. |
6. (US campus) a bad thing.
Campus Sl. Fall 1: banana – a bad thing: Did you lose the game? That’s a banana! |
In compounds
1. (US) an eccentric.
Barney Miller [TV script] 24 July: They’ve got some banana cake on top of a building with a pair of home-made wings. | ||
Dict. of Invective (1991) 35: Variations include banana-cake, a crazy person (similar to fruitcake). |
2. (N.Z. prison) an Asian (prisoner).
Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 13/1: banana cake n. an Asian. |
(US campus) a hectic, horrible or futile situation.
Post-Crescent (Appleton, WI) 24 Mar. B1/5: Trying to get the state’s attention on this whole income maintenance thing is a banana factory. It’s absolutely nuts. | ||
Sl. and Sociability 70: Banana factory was a ‘hectic, horrible, or futile situation’, and duck soup was ‘something easy’. |
a psychiatric institution in a tropical or semi-tropical country.
DSUE (1984). | Hatchet Man in
(US) a cheap cigar.
Mr. Jackson 4: The stranger bought a couple of dollar cigars [...] John swore that he liked them, but privately longed for a good old nickel ‘banana filler,’ something a man could ‘taste’. |
(US) a pair of male thong-style underpants.
Dirty Words [ebook] ‘Lose the banana hammock’. | ‘Biggest Dick in Brooklyn’ in
(US) a simpleton, a fool.
Asphalt Jungle in Four Novels (1984) 266: Haven’t you bothered me enough [...] You big . . . bananahead! | ||
Dict. of Invective (1991) 35: Variations include banana-cake, a crazy person (similar to fruitcake); bananahead, a stupid person. | ||
Miracle Wimp [ebook] What are you talking about, you bananahead? |
of a black person, having light skin tones.
Coll. Stories (1990) 403: The memory of Hal taking his fine banana skin chick away from him. | ‘The Something in a Colored Man’ in
In phrases
to masturbate.
Number One Adult Sexual Health Terms Advisor 🌐 Masturbation Slang Male Terms: [...] buff the banana/wood. |
(US black) an attractive, light-skinned young woman.
‘Jiver’s Bible’ in Orig. Hbk of Harlem Jive. |
(orig. US) of a man, to have sexual intercourse.
, | DAS. | |
5000 Adult Sex Words and Phrases. |
1. (US black) a young, light-skinned woman [SE green, naïve].
N.Y. Amsterdam Star-News 13 Mar. 13: [T]rying to peel me a fine green banana and feeling all mellow and groovy. | ||
Criminal Sl. (rev. edn) 102: I gimmed this fine green banana at half past a colored man a deuce o’ dims and darks on the cutback. |
2. the penis.
Lucifer with a Book 102: I’m slippin the green banana to three at once. Broth-er ... |
to have sexual intercourse with.
DSUE (1984) 46: ca. 1905–30. | ||
Who Live In Shadow (1960) 183: banana – Sexual intercourse. |
(W.I.) a derog. term for an albino.
cited in Dict. Jam. Eng. (1980). |
(US) something that is very hard to achieve.
Web of the City (1983) 27: I gotta stand with Candle. Gonna be rough bananas, though. |
the penis.
Barry McKenzie [comic strip] in Complete Barry McKenzie (1988) 19: The policeman shone his torch at Bazzie’s tummy banana. | ||
Dict. of Obscenity etc. | ||
🌐 I wish that you would poke me in my nether eye with your tummy banana and insist that I was wholly enjoying myself. | Maureen’s Lusty Confessions||
Metro 22 May 37/2: Men display a lot of bravado when discussing their tummy bananas. |
SE in slang uses
In compounds
1. (Aus.) a Queenslander.
(ref. to 1940s) Aus. Library Jrnl I 41/1: [note] In Australian service slang, ‘Banana Bender’ was employed inevitably as a synonym for Queenslander during World War II; possibly even earlier. | ||
‘Whisper All Aussie Dict.’ in Kings Cross Whisper (Sydney) xxxii 6/1: banana bender: Queenslander. | ||
(con. 1941) Gunner 300: ‘I’m Q.X. Queenslander.’ ‘Banana-bender, eh.’. | ||
G’DAY 42: The Australian populace is divided into four distinct groupings: eastern states, [...] banana benders (Queenslanders), crow eaters (South Australians) and gropers or sandgropers (Western Ausgrtalians). | ||
Lex. of Cadet Lang. 23: banana bender a Queenslander. | ||
Bug (Aus.) 24 Feb. 🌐 Poor former Bananabender Benny is homesick and wants to leave New South Wailes [sic]. | ||
Lingo 75: bananabenders or bananalanders [come] from Bananaland or Queensland. | ||
Aussie Sl. 10: Banana Benders Residents of Queensland. |
2. a fool [stereotyping of sense 1].
Llama Parlour 58: He was a total boof-head, a banana-bender. |
1. (Aus.) a native or resident of Queensland.
Black Police 79: ‘Advance Australia,’ yells Mr. Corn-stalk (N.S. Wales), John Chinaman Crow-eater, Esq. (South Australia), or hot-headed Master Banana-boy (Queensland). |
2. (S.Afr., also banana girl) a resident or native of Natal; also attrib.
Bantu World 8 May (Supplement) 11: In the few crowded hours of her visit to Johannesburg, Durban’s ‘Banana Girl’ was given a pretty good idea of the city’s musical and stage talent [DSAE]. | ||
in Wright S. Afr. Stories (1960) 69: Young white men brought up in the strong Anglo-Saxon tradition of the province of Natal are often referred to, and refer to themselves, as ‘banana boys.’. | ||
Diamonds are Dangerous 125: Sandy, you old banana-boy (everyone from Durban is known to other South Africans as a banana-boy), what on earth are you doing here? | ||
Talking to Myself 137: A pale young bus driver, a ‘banana boy’ — Durban-born are so called — giggles. | ||
Mooi Street (1994) 9: corky: Out from England, hey? richard: Good gracious no. Natal, actually [...] corky: Banana Boy! | ‘Under the Oaks’ in||
in Sun. Times 2 Jan. 19: Nicest place in the country to be just now is [...] Johannesburg! During the school holidays, the city so scorned by Kaapies and Banana-boys acquires a leisurely atmosphere, almost an elegance of its own [DSAE]. | ||
Daily Dispatch (S.Afr.) Online 6 May 🌐 A Banana Boy hockey coach ended up in the salon of local look guru Nelson Restom yesterday. | ||
🌐 I come from Durban and of those of you who know Natal well, if you come from this part of the world you are called a banana boy. | at International Association of Universities General Conference
1. (Aus.) Brisbane, Queensland.
I Travelled a Lonely Land (1957) 230/1: Banana City – Brisbane. |
2. (S.Afr.) Durban.
Drum (Johannesburg) n.d. 40: Yes. for the days that the Jazz Parade was in Durban the whole Banana City went jazz-crazy. | ||
Drum (Johannesburg) 8 Nov. 43: Collecting beauty crowns comes sort of naturally with this peach from the Banana City. She is Miss Durban, Miss South Africa [DSAE]. | ||
Voice (Johannesburg) 31 Jan. 1: Suspense is about all that scores of soccer fans who live outside the Banana City, will be left with today ... The next best alternative to being physically present at Umlazi Stadium, in Durban, today is to [...] ogle the epic on the magic ‘goggle-box’ [DSAE]. | ||
Chiefs n.p.: A move which angered Durban fans some of whom threatened the lives of Chiefs’ players and officials should they set foot in the Banana City. | ||
www.durbanet.co.za 🌐 Well, Durban is called The Banana City, KwaZulu-Natal is The Banana Province, and people from KwaZulu-Natal are called Banana Boys and Banana Girls. |
(W.I., Gren.) one who gets a free ride from the country by climbing onto a banana lorry heading for town.
Dict. Carib. Eng. Usage. |
1. (Aus.) Queensland; thus Banana-lander, Banana-eater, a native of Queensland.
Clarence & Richmond Examiner (Grafton, NSW) 6 July 3/1: Brisbane Letter. According to request, I purpose from time to time to furnish you with a few passing notes anent matters in general in ‘Banana land,’ which may interest your readers. | ||
Bulletin (Sydney) 26 June 3/1: [heading] Notes from Banana Land. | ||
Bulletin (Sydney) 6 June 7/1: Shortly afterwards, however, the banking authorities had a suspicion that the hitherto gay young financier had either tied the nuptial knot or contemplated such an atrocity, so they generously gave him the choice of expatriation to Bananaland, or of sending in his resignation. | ||
‘Aus. Colloquialisms’ in All Year Round 30 July 67/2: A native of Queensland is a ‘banana-lander’. | ||
Truth (Sydney) 1 Apr. 1/5: The following comes from Bananaland and is consequently as true as gospel. | ||
Truth (Sydney) 30 Dec. 1/6: Who should i run against but Groggy Graytrix, a Bananalander, who had made his pile and retired. | ||
Austral Eng. 16/2: Banana-land, n. slang name for Queensland, where bananas grow in abundance. Banana-lander, n. slang for a Queenslander. | ||
Bulletin (Sydney) 13 Jan. 14/3: The Fassifern line was just opened, and the flag-bedizened first train, lodged with Bananaland big wigs, was struggling up a grade when […] it suddenly came to a full stop. | ||
Tommy Cornstalk 2: Because the popular banana finds the climate of Queensland suitable [...] the inhabitants of that Colony are dubbed ‘Banana-landers’. | ||
Sun. Times (Perth) 30 Mar. 3/1: The aborigine will shortly be as extinct in Bananaland as the diprotodon. | ||
Bulletin (Sydney) 21 July 14/3: When Bananaland passed a statute for the protection of the fast disappearing bear and platypus, there was a howl from the pelt-hunters about the ruin that would ensue in the fur trade. | ||
Aussie (France) 12 Mar. 5/2: Bananaland and Tassy got to grips. | ||
N.Z. Truth 29 Mar. 16/8: ‘Bananalander’ writes: Queensland, the land of sin, sweat, sand [etc.]. | ||
Timely Tips For New Australians 15: BANANALANDER.—A term used in certain southern journals to denote a Queenslander. | ||
Sun. Times (Perth) 16 Dec. 2s/6: [headline] The Exodus from Bananaland. | ||
N.Z. Truth 18 July 16/7: Jack Ford [...] a Bananalander, scaling 15 stone. | ||
Brisbane Courier 17 Oct. 12/6: We are all Bananalanders— All Bananalanders here! | ||
Brisbane Courier 5 Oct. 20/3: You strive to keep Australia white / Bananaland! Bananaland! | ||
Sun. Times (Perth) 17 Mar. 13/6: The other Bananalander, blonde Vera Askew, impressed everybody with her good looks. | ||
We Went to Aus. 72: The people of Queensland are known as [...] the Banana-landers. | ||
North. Standard (Darwin, NT) 21 Jan. 1s/5: Well, I’m home again from Bananaland. | ||
I Travelled a Lonely Land (1957) 230/1: Banana-eater (Bananalander) – Queenslander [...] Bananaland – Queensland. | ||
in | Spirit of the Vine 299: Campbell was a ‘Bananalander’ by birth.||
Glass Canoe (1982) 140: He came back brown as a berry from Queensland [...] ‘Been up north,’ he says. ‘Banana land.’. | ||
Lingo 75: bananalanders [come] from Bananaland or Queensland. | ||
Intractable [ebook] Ray wasn’t too keen to do more time – especially in the banana State. |
2. (S.Afr.) the province of Natal, now KwaZulu-Natal; thus Bananalander.
Wayzgoose in T. Hopkinson South Africa (1964) 119: Attend my fable if your ears be clean, / In fair Banana Land we lay our scene – South Africa, renowned both far and wide / For politics and little else beside]. | ||
Encyc. of Sn Afr 35: Natal is jocularly referred to as ‘Bananaland.’ [DSAE]. | ||
in Opperman Spirit of Vine 299: One must remember that Campbell was a ‘Bananalander’ by birth and upbringing . | ||
Daily Dispatch (S.Afr.) 15 Sept. 9: You’re wrong if you think ‘banana land’ is Natal. The banana image cultivated by the lads up the coast is a false one [DSAE]. | ||
in Personality 6 June 12: This [...] Durban City Councillor [...] has been the driving force behind preparing the young men from Bananaland for their military duties [DSAE]. |
(Aus.) an inhabitant of Queensland.
Maryborough Chron. (Qld) 10 Dec. 2/7: The gallant ‘Knight of the Lancet’ recently elected a member of the Local Court, who though perhaps the last ‘Banana’ man who ventured to this field from the metropolis, yet modestly assumes the pretension of being a pioneer digger on Gympie. | ||
Gympie Times (Qld) 26 Oct. 3/1: Of the gerat melbourne M.D.’s, with their heavy fees, / Will find our Banana man come to the fore! | ||
Bulletin (Sydney) 2 Oct. 4/1: Thorne, M.L.A., wants to know what has become of the blacks’ blankets. Most ‘Banana men’ begin to think things look fishy. | ||
Bulletin (Sydney) 22 Aug. 14/1: The team is no way ‘representative’ of Sydney football, and, should it win the matches engaged in, the result will redound less to the glory of N.S.W. than to the disgrace of the Banana-men. | ||
Chron. (Adelaide) 24 Mar. 43/3: Queenslanders, Bananalanders, banana men and sugarlanders: Victorians, Yarrasiders, cabbage gardeners, cabbagelanders. |
(US) a long or hooked nose; thus used as a nickname or epithet; also attrib.
(con. 1917) | 315th Infantry 152: Jack Fields, better known as ’Old Eagle Beak’ and ‘Banana Nose.’ .||
Amer. Mag. 138 146: Eddie [Arcaro], known familiarly as Banana Nose, decided to become a jockey when folks in his home town of Newport, Ky., began kidding him about his stunted growth. | ||
Murder Steps Out 80: ‘If it isn’t Banana-Nose! What's my old pal been up to now?’ ‘Judas-Priest-in-a-jug! [...] do you recognize this face?’. | ||
Walking the Beat 36: Now if you don’t start back to that pier I’ll change your banana nose into a cherry smash. | ||
New York Mag. 28 Apr. 66: Cabagehead? Whoya callin’ uh cabbagehead, yuh fogging . . . banana-nose! | ||
Cultural Discord in Modern World 205: Listen, you Banana Nose guinea [...] you too dumb to do your homework. You can’t even read. | ||
That’s Life 58: We arrived at the back door simultaneously with a pair of metal-rimmed eyeglasses on the bridge of a banana nose stuck into the upper third of a long, thin head. |
(US) nonsense, insincere or hypocritical talk; thus as excl.
Hitz & Mrs 26 Nov. [synd. cartoon] Banana Oil. | ||
Carry on, Jeeves 155: Surely you can see for yourself that this is pure banana oil. | ||
Showgirl 5: Well, I got to go out and pour a lot of banana oil into Miss Schwartz’s ear. | ||
Fight Stories Jan. 🌐 ‘Banan orl!’ sneered the Cockney. ‘She was spoofin’ you proper, mate.’. | ‘Alleys of Peril’||
Right Ho, Jeeves 149: Tuppy, my dear old ass [...] this is pure banana oil. | ||
One Basket (1947) 546: A curious grocer’s list vocabulary of rejection: ‘Nuts!’ ‘Applesauce!’ ‘Banana oil!’. | ‘Grandma Isn’t Playing’ in||
Criminal Sl. (rev. edn). | ||
Jeeves in the Offing 81: I mean the sort of banana oil that passes between statesmen at conferences. | ||
(con. 1916) Tin Lizzie Troop (1978) 126: Biddle, I’ve swallowed enough of your banana oil. | ||
Melodeon 86: ‘What about the meaning of Christmas?’ ‘Banana oil!’. | ||
Dict. of Invective (1991) 33: banana oil. Nonsense, especially of the insincere or unctuous sort. |
(US) an Italian immigrant.
Beef, Iron and Wine (1917) 249: You penny-ante Castle Garden banana peddler. | ‘The Gangster’s Elegy’ in
(drugs) amyl nitrite.
Queens’ Vernacular. |
In phrases
to be unpleasant, to cause one annoyance, to be distasteful.
(con. 1960s) Wanderers 104: School really bit the hairy banana these days. |
(US) to work to the limits of one’s ability and strength.
Willy Remembers 112: I bust my bananas and what do I get? Looks and vomit. |
(US campus) a flaring effect produced by breaking wind next to a lit match.
Sl. U. |
(Irish) intoxicated by a drug, thus acting very foolishly.
Hitmen 237: ‘You’re out of your bleedin’ banana, pal [...] out of your bleedin’ box’. |
In exclamations
a dismissive excl.
DSUE (1984) 46: [...] earlier C.20. | ||
None But the Lonely Heart 122: It’s just a way of saying something, like Bob’s Your Uncle, or Have a Banana. |