ensete

Noun

ensete (countable and uncountable, plural ensetes)

1. Ensete ventricosum, a species of flowering plant in the banana family Musaceae, the root of which is used for food and other purposes.
   • [T]he figs of the Enſete are not eatable; they are of a tender, ſoft ſubstance; watery, taſteleſs, and in colour and conſiſtence ſimilar to a rotten apricot; they are of a conical form, crooked a little at the lower end, about an inch and a half in length, and an inch in breadth where thickeſt.1790, [James Bruce], “Ensete”, in Select Specimens of Natural History, Collected in Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile, in Egypt, Arabia, Abyssinia, and Nubia, volume V, Edinburgh: Printed by...
   • Were it not for the enſete, therefore, the Galla would have ſcarce any vegetable food. Mr [James] Bruce thinks that the enſete may have been cultivated in ſome of the gardens of Egypt about Roſetto, but that it was not a native of the country.1797, “MUSA, the plantain-tree”, in [Colin Macfarquhar], editor, Encyclopædia Britannica; or, A Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, and Miscellaneous Literature; [...] The Third Edition, in Eighteen...

   Synonyms:

   Abyssinian banana, Ethiopian banana, false banana