banyan
An Indian trader, merchant, cashier, or money changerAn Indian trader, merchant, cashier, or money changer.
» Tom painted a landscape dominated by a single ancient banyan.
Meaning
6 sensesAn Indian trader, merchant, cashier, or money changer.
A tropical Indian fig tree, Ficus benghalensis, that has many aerial roots.
банья́нbanʹján, баниа́нbanián
Various other trees of the Ficus subgenus Urostigma, especially Ficus pertusa (Central American banyan) and Ficus microcarpa (Chinese banyan or Malayan banyan).
A type of loose gown worn in India.
a loose fitting jacket; originally worn in India
(India, Pakistan)A vest; an undershirt; a singlet.
(UK, dated, slang)A camping excursion on shore, to give a ship's crew a break from shipboard routine.
Examples
3 sentencesTom painted a landscape dominated by a single ancient banyan.
The children played hide-and-seek among the banyan tree's aerial roots.
A massive banyan spread its roots across the path, forcing us to walk around it.
Translations
5 languagesBy meaning 1
Origin
From Portuguese baniano, from Arabic بَنِيَان (baniyān), from Gujarati વાણિયો (vāṇiyo, “meFrom 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.
Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source
Forms
plural: banyansSynonyms
6 synonyms- a loose fitting jacket; originally worn in India:banian
- East Indian tree that puts out aerial shoots that grow down into the soil forming additional trunks:banyan treebanianbanian treeIndian banyanEast Indian fig treeFicus bengalensis