From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:
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.]
[1913 Webster]
1. (Bot.) A genus of climbing orchidaceous plants, natives of
tropical America.
[1913 Webster]
2. The long podlike capsules of {Vanilla planifolia}, and
{Vanilla 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.
[1913 Webster]
Note: As a medicine, vanilla is supposed to possess powers
analogous to valerian, while, at the same time, it is
far more grateful.
[1913 Webster]
{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}.
[1913 Webster]
From WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006) [wn]:
vanilla
adj 1: flavored with vanilla extract; "he liked vanilla ice
cream"
2: plain and without any extras or adornments; "the most common
type of bond is the straight or plain vanilla bond"; "the
basic car is known as the vanilla version"
n 1: any of numerous climbing plants of the genus Vanilla having
fleshy leaves and clusters of large waxy highly fragrant
white or green or topaz flowers
2: a flavoring prepared from vanilla beans macerated in alcohol
(or imitating vanilla beans) [syn: {vanilla}, {vanilla
extract}]
3: a distinctive fragrant flavor characteristic of vanilla beans
From The Jargon File (version 4.4.7, 29 Dec 2003) [jargon]:
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.
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