Chapter PISHPASH to PLANTAIN of P by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

explanation of plantain given is as the equivalent of the Latin plantago, the field-weed known by the former name. Platano and Plantano are used in the Philippine Islands by the Spanish population.

1336.—“Sunt in Syriâ et Aegypto poma oblonga quae Paradisi nuncupantur optimi saporis, mollia, in ore cito dissolubilia: per transversum quotiescumque ipsa incideris invenies Crucifixum … diu non durant, unde per mare ad nostras partes duci non possunt incorrupta.”—Gul. de Boldensele.

c. 1350.—“Sunt enim in orto illo Adae de Seyllano primo musae, quas incolae ficus vocant … et istud vidimus oculis nostris quod ubicunque inciditur per transversum, in utrâque parte incisurae videtur ymago hominis crucifixi … et de istis foliis ficûs Adam et Eva fecerunt sibi perizomata. …”—John de’ Marignolli, in Cathay, &c. p. 352.

1384.—“And there is again a fruit which many people assert to be that regarding which our first father Adam sinned, and this fruit they call Muse … in this fruit you see a very great miracle, for when you divide it anyway, whether lengthways or across, or cut it as you will, you shall see inside, as it were, the image of the Crucifix; and of this we comrades many times made proof.”—Viaggio di Simone Sigoli (Firenze, 1862, p. 160).

1526 (tr. 1577).—“There are also certayne plantes whiche the Christians call Platani. In the myddest of the plant, in the highest part thereof, there groweth a cluster with fourtie or fiftie platans about it. … This cluster ought to be taken from the plant, when any one of the platans begins to appeare yelowe, at which time they take it, and hang it in their houses, where all the cluster waxeth rype, with all his platans.”—Oviedo, transl. in Eden’s Hist. of Travayle, f. 208.

1552 (tr. 1582).—“Moreover the Ilande (of Mombas) is verye pleasaunt, having many orchards, wherein are planted and are groweing. … Figges of the Indias. …”—Castañeda, by N. L., f. 22.

1579.—“… a fruit which they call Figo (Magellane calls it a figge of a span long, but it is no other than that which the Spaniards and Portingalls have named Plantanes).”—Drake’s Voyage, Hak. Soc. p. 142.

1585 (tr. 1588).—“There are mountaines very thicke of orange trees, siders [i.e. cedras, ‘citrons’], limes, plantanos, and palmas.”—Mendoca, by R. Parke, Hak. Soc. ii. 330.

1588.—“Our Generall made their wiues to fetch vs Plantans, Lymmons, and Oranges, Pine-apples, and other fruits.”—Voyage of Master Thomas Candish, in Purchas, i. 64.

1588 (tr. 1604).—“… the first that shall be needefulle to treate of is the Plantain (Platano), or Plantano, as the vulgar call it. … The reason why the Spaniards call it platano (for the Indians had no such name), was, as in other trees for that they have found some resemblance of the one with the other, even as they called some fruites prunes, pines, and cucumbers, being far different from those which are called by those names in Castille. The thing wherein was most resemblance, in my opinion, between the platanos at the Indies and those which the ancients did celebrate, is the greatness of the leaves. … But, in truth, there is no more comparison nor resemblance of the one with the other than there is, as the Proverb saith, betwixt an egge and a chesnut.”—Joseph de Acosta, transl. by E. G. Hak. Soc. i. 241.

1593.—“The plantane is a tree found in most parts of Afrique and America, of which two leaves are sufficient to cover a man from top to toe.”—Hawkins, Voyage into the South Sea, Hak. Soc. 49.

1610.—“… and every day failed not to send each man, being one and fiftie in number, two cakes of white bread, and a quantitie of Dates and Plantans. …”—Sir H. Middleton, in Purchas, i. 254.

c. 1610.—“Ces Gentils ayant pitié de moy, il y eut vne femme qui me mit … vne seruiete de feuilles de plantane accommodées ensemble auec des espines, puis me ietta dessus du rys cuit auec vne certaine sauce qu’ils appellent caril (see CURRY). …”—Mocquet, Voyages, 292.

[„ “They (elephants) require … besides leaves of trees, chiefly of the Indian fig, which we call Bananes and the Turks plantenes.”—Pyrard de Laval, Hak. Soc. ii. 345.]

1616.—“They have to these another fruit we English there call a Planten, of which many of them grow in clusters together … very yellow when they are Ripe, and then they taste like unto a Norwich Pear, but much better.”—Terry, ed. 1665, p. 360.

c. 1635.—

“… with candy Plantains and the juicy Pine,
On choicest Melons and sweet Grapes they dine,
And with Potatoes fat their wanton Swine.”

Waller, Battle of the Summer Islands.

c. 1635.—

“Oh how I long my careless Limbs to lay
Under the Plantain’s Shade; and all the Day
With amorous Airs my Fancy entertain.”