pineapple
Meanings
- A common safeword.
- A tropical plant, Ananas comosus, native to South America, having thirty or more long, spined and pointed leaves surrounding a thick stem.
- The ovoid fruit of the pineapple plant, which has very sweet white or yellow flesh, a tough, spiky shell and a tough, fibrous core.
- The flesh of a pineapple fruit used as a food item.
- An Australian fifty dollar note.
- A web burrfish (Chilomycterus antillarum, syn. Chilomycterus geometricus)
- A light yellow colour, like that of pineapple flesh (also called pineapple yellow).
- A pinecone; the cone of the fir.
- A hand grenade. (From the similarity to the shape of a pineapple fruit.)
- A hairstyle consisting of a ponytail worn on top of the head, imitating the leaves of a pineapple.
Pronunciation
Word forms
Etymology
From Middle English pinappel (“pinecone”, literally “pine-apple/pine-fruit”), from Proto-West Germanic *pīnapplu. Later applied to the fruit of the pineapple plant due to its resemblance to a pinecone. Compare the Middle Dutch and Dutch pijnappel (“pinecone", formerly also "pineapple”), Afrikaans pynappel (“pineapple”), Middle Low German pinappel, Old High German pīnapful, Middle High German pīnaphel, and early Modern German pinapfel — all in the sense of “pine cone”. Compare also the post-Classical Latin pomum pini, the Old French pume de pin, the Middle French and French pomme de pin and Spanish piña. By surface analysis, pine + apple. Sense "An Australian fifty dollar note": From the yellow colour of a $50 banknote in the first, second, and third series of rice Australian dollar notes. Compare with lobster for a $20 Australian banknote, and watermelon for a $100 Australian banknote.