banyan

The story

1. Sanskrit · derived fromवाणिज
2. Gujarati · derived fromવાણિયો“merchant”
3. Arabic · derived fromبَنِيَان
4. Portuguese · borrowed frombaniano
5. English todaybanyan

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.