Dictionary

bananaphile en · NOUN

Etymology

From banana + -phile.

Meanings

1. One who loves bananas.
   • Lest he be typecast as a bananaphile, he’s rather fond of palm trees too. 2018, Christopher Woods, “Quinta da Granja”, in Gardenlust: A Botanical Tour of the World’s Best New Gardens, Portland, Or.: Timber Press, →ISBN, page 145:
   • Older bananaphiles may be interested to know that, inside the pyjamas marked B2 hides someone who resembles Hugh Grant. 1994 July 25, James Cockington, “Bananas in the raw”, in The Sydney Morning Herald, number 48,951, page 3s:
   • Supermarkets are dominated by a single variety, the yellow, mildly sweet Cavendish. But bananaphiles can take heart: Major companies like Dole and Chiquita are brining more varieties to grocery stores. 2011 February/March, Fine Cooking, number 109, The Taunton Press, Inc., →ISSN, page 71:
   • Whether you’re a big bananaphile or not, you’ll dig this drink—Iguanabanana, baby! 2003, W. Park Kerr, Viva Margarita: Fabulous Fiestas in a Glass, Munchies, and More, Chronicle Books, →ISBN, page 70:
   • But, as all true bananaphiles agree, in size, handling, aroma and above all flavour, the Cavendish is a shadow of the glorious fruit that was once ‘Big Mike’. 2011, John Oldale, “Panama”, in Who, or Why, or Which, or What …?: A Global Gazetteer of the Instructive and Strange, Particular Books, →ISBN, page 200:
   • Our bananaphiles meanwhile were raising a furor in the newspapers. Why weren’t people eating more bananas? Why weren’t the sick people in the hospitals given bananas to eat instead of questionable eggs and so forth? 1967, Moishe Nadir, “The Eatabananists”, in Max Rosenfeld, editor, A Union for Shabbos, and Other Stories of Jewish Life in America, Philadelphia, Pa.: Sholom Aleichem Club Press, page 187:
   • There are three stages of ripeness. The first is the banana with a touch of green; the second is light yellow; and the third is yellow with dark-brown flecks on it. Most people prefer the first two stages, but bananaphiles know that the brown-flecked is the sweetest. 1984 July 8, Malcolm R. Hebert, “Getting Serious About Bananas”, in Sunshine, page 20:
   • Turn page upside down, notice legends on banana cloth wrapping. “Bananaphiles” may have a new collecting interest. 1970 November, World Coins, page 1384:
   • But there is nothing in the taste of bananas that I am missing, nothing that my bananaphile friend is privy to that I am not. It is simply that we have different taste response characteristics to one and the same stimulus. 2018, Michael Haworth, Neurotechnology and the End of Finitude, University of Minnesota Press, →ISBN:
   • Today is the birthday of bananaphile Harry Belafonte (1927), generational stutterer Roger Daltrey (1944) and cunning ham Ron Howard (1954). 1999 March 1, The Sydney Morning Herald, number 50,387:
   • Of all consumer goods sold from one country to another, only books are expected by their purchasers to bear local prices with a public relationship to those in the countries of origin. No-one who buys a Volkswagen in Australia bothers to learn what the price is in Germany. British bananaphiles do not seek to know the price of their favourite fruit in the Canary Islands. 1994, Gordon C. Graham, As I Was Saying: Essays on the International Book Business, Hans Zell Publishers, →ISBN, page 53:
   • Within the memory of many an old bananaphile are the days of loss-leader sales in chain stores of bananas, three pounds for a dime. 1975 April 4, “Banana Trade Slips Away”, in Spokane Daily Chronicle, 89th year, number 165, Spokane, Wash., page 4:
   • To test the claims of bananaphiles, who say that each type – from Brazilian dwarf to praying hands – has a distinct flavor, guests taste the fruit as carefully as they would wine. 2000 September/October, Islands, page 26:
   • Technically, I was a former-New-York-woman-Jew-thirtysomething-divorcée-restaurateur-bananaphile. 2014, Jeff Rovin, To Kill a Matzo Ball, Kensington Books, →ISBN, page 109:
   • Tarzan’s dead but Jane’s still swinging. Bananaphiles enjoy a wild look at old age. 1977 November 6, Chicago Tribune, 131st year, number 310, section 6, page 23:
   • There are other bona fide bananaphiles in Charlotte — most of the people attending the reception for her show on May 20 enjoying liquid banana surprises had already “gone bananas.” 1979 June 3, Michael E. Kampen, “The Banal Banana Finds Its Place In The Arts”, in The Charlotte Observer, 94th year, number 143, page 9F:

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