banyan

Meaning

Noun

• An Indian trader, merchant, cashier, or money changer.
• A tropical Indian fig tree, Ficus benghalensis, that has many aerial roots.
• A type of loose gown worn in India.
• A vest; an undershirt; a singlet.
• A camping excursion on shore, to give a ship's crew a break from shipboard routine.

Related

Similar words

• banyan tree

Origin

• From Portuguese baniano, from Arabic بَنِيَان, from Gujarati વાણિયો ("merchant"), from Sanskrit वाणिज, from earlier वणिज्. 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. bunnia.