What does anana mean?
Anana is an alternative English name for the pineapple, the tropical plant Ananas comosus and its large, sweet, spiky-skinned fruit. Borrowed from indigenous South American languages via Portuguese, the word was fairly common in early modern English but has since been almost entirely displaced by "pineapple," which arose as a calque describing the fruit's resemblance to a pine cone. Today anana appears mainly in botanical literature, historical accounts of the Age of Exploration, and translations from languages such as French, German, Spanish, and Russian, where cognate forms remain the standard term. The word carries a faintly exotic, old-world flavor in modern English prose, evoking tropical voyages and hothouse cultivation. Though unfamiliar to most contemporary readers, it remains useful for anyone reading older natural-history texts or comparative vocabulary across European languages.
nounThe pineapple plant, or its fruit; also used as a name for the pineapple itself in botanical and older literary usage.
- The pineapple (Ananas comosus) or its fruit.
- A variant name for pineapple used in older botanical and literary texts.
"The botanist pressed a specimen of the anana into her field book, its spiky leaves still fragrant."
"She sliced the ripe anana and served it chilled with lime."
"Early European accounts describe the anana as the finest fruit of the New World tropics."
The plural follows standard English patterns; some writers retain the Portuguese-style form "ananases," but "ananas" is more common.
"The cargo manifest listed dozens of ananas bound for London."
Before English speakers said 'pineapple,' they often called it 'anana' — a name borrowed directly from the Tupi people of South America.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of anana
Anana derives ultimately from nanas, the word for pineapple in Tupi, an indigenous language of Brazil, which Portuguese adopted as ananás and carried into European languages including French (ananas) and German (Ananas). English borrowed the form independently in the sixteenth century, around the same time that "pineapple" emerged as a descriptive translation. While anana has largely fallen out of use in English, its cognates remain the standard word for pineapple across much of Europe.
How anana is actually used
"Anana" is now rare in everyday English, where "pineapple" is standard. It survives chiefly in botanical contexts, in historical writing, and in many other languages (e.g., French ananas, German Ananas), where it remains the ordinary word for pineapple.
Easily confused with anana
An anana is a pineapple, whereas a banana is the elongated yellow fruit of the genus Musa.