plantain

plural plantains

1. Any plant of the genus Plantago, with a rosette of sessile leaves about 10 cm (4") long with a narrow part instead of a petiole, and with a spike inflorescence with the flower spacing varying widely among the species. See also psyllium.

   The paths too are overgrown, but easily identified by the presence on them of round-leaved plantains.

   2003, Ernst Jünger, translated by Michael Hofmann, Storm of Steel, Penguin, published 2004, page 41

   1 more example

   The roots of Plantain and Pellitory of Spain beaten to powder and put into hollow teeth, takes away the pains of them.

   1653, Nicholas Culpeper, The English Physician Enlarged, Folio Society, published 2007, page 225

   Synonyms: waybread, fleawort

plural plantains

1. A plant in the genus Musa, the genus that includes banana, but with lower sugar content than banana.
2. The fruit of the plant, usually cooked before eating and used like potatoes.

   We were sitting at the tables in the port, eating an unhurried breakfast of delicious mojarra fish from the swamp and slices of fried green plantain, when my mother resumed the offensive in her personal war.

   2002, Edith Grossman, transl., chapter 1, in Living to Tell the Tale, translation of Vivir para contarla by Gabriel García Márquez

   1 more example

   She uses broccoli rabe instead of aka takana (spicy mustard greens), shops in the Caribbean markets of her Washington Heights neighborhood for batatas rather than Japanese satsumaimo (yellow sweet potatoes), and has learned to love the local mofongo, the Dominican version of mashed plantains with lots of garlic.

   2007 December 26, Julia Moskin, “A Celebration of the New Year Ushers in a Bit of Japan”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 26 Nov 2022