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va⋅nil⋅la
[vuh-nil-uh or, often, -nel-uh]
| 1. | any tropical, climbing orchid of the genus Vanilla, esp. V. planifolia, bearing podlike fruit yielding an extract used in flavoring food, in perfumery, etc. |
| 2. | Also called vanilla bean. the fruit or bean of this orchid. |
| 3. | the extract of this fruit. |
1655–65; < NL < Sp vainilla little pod, equiv. to vain(a) a sheath (< L vāgīna sheath) + -illa dim. suffix (< LL)

Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Vanilla
Va*nil"la\, n. [NL., fr. Sp. vainilla, dim. of Sp. vaina a sheath, a pod, L. vagina; because its grains, or seeds, are contained in little pods.]1. (Bot.) A genus of climbing orchidaceous plants, natives of tropical America. 2. The long podlike capsules of Vanilla planifolia, and V. claviculata, remarkable for their delicate and agreeable odor, for the volatile, odoriferous oil extracted from them; also, the flavoring extract made from the capsules, extensively used in confectionery, perfumery, etc. Note: As a medicine, vanilla is supposed to possess powers analogous to valerian, while, at the same time, it is far more grateful. Cuban vanilla, a sweet-scented West Indian composite shrub (Eupatorium Dalea). Vanilla bean, the long capsule of the vanilla plant. Vanilla grass. Same as Holy grass, under Holy.Cite This Source
vanilla
adj. [from the default flavor of ice cream in the U.S.] Ordinary flavor, standard. When used of food, very often does not mean that the food is flavored with vanilla extract! For example, `vanilla wonton soup' means ordinary wonton soup, as opposed to hot-and-sour wonton soup. Applied to hardware and software, as in "Vanilla Version 7 Unix can't run on a vanilla 11/34." Also used to orthogonalize chip nomenclature; for instance, a 74V00 means what TI calls a 7400, as distinct from a 74LS00, etc. This word differs from canonical in that the latter means `default', whereas vanilla simply means `ordinary'. For example, when hackers go on a great-wall, hot-and-sour soup is the canonical soup to get (because that is what most of them usually order) even though it isn't the vanilla (wonton) soup.Cite This Source
vanilla
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Main Entry: va·nil·la
Pronunciation: v&-'nil-&, -'nel-
Function: noun
1 a :
2 : any of a genus (Vanilla) of tropical Americanclimbing orchids
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vanilla va·nil·la (və-nĭl'ə)
n.
- Any of various tropical American vines of the genus Vanilla, especially V. planifolia, cultivated for its long narrow seedpods from which a flavoring agent is obtained.
- The seedpod of this plant. Also called vanilla bean.
- A flavoring extract prepared from the cured seedpods of this plant or produced synthetically.
Flavored with vanilla.
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.
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vanilla
1. (Default flavour of ice cream in the US) Ordinary flavour, standard. When used of food, very often does not mean that the food is flavoured with vanilla extract! For example, "vanilla wonton soup" means ordinary wonton soup, as opposed to hot-and-sour wonton soup. Applied to hardware and software, as in "Vanilla Version 7 Unix can't run on a vanilla PDP 11/34." Also used to orthogonalise chip nomenclature; for instance, a 74V00 means what TI calls a 7400, as distinct from a 74LS00, etc. This word differs from canonical in that the latter means "default", whereas vanilla simply means "ordinary". For example, when hackers go to a chinese restaurant, hot-and-sour wonton soup is the canonical wonton soup to get (because that is what most of them usually order) even though it isn't the vanilla wonton soup.
[The Jargon File]
(1994-11-04)
2. Snobol4 by Catspaw, Inc. for MS-DOS.
(ftp://cs.arizona.edu/snobol4/vanilla.arc).
(1992-02-05)
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