Vol. 09 · Loanwords ·Spanish ·1660s
Vanilla
from vainilla
- Meaning
- Little sheath — a diminutive of *vaina* (pod), describing the seed pod shape.
- Source word
- vainilla
- Route into English
- Spanish → English via the Mesoamerican spice trade of the 1600s. The "generic / plain" sense is a late-20th-century marketing extension — vanilla ice cream was the default flavour.
- Arrived
- 1660s
From Spanish
American Spanish, not peninsular Spanish, provided most of the modern loanwords — through US expansion westward and Latin American trade.
English borrows.
Browse the full loanword atlas or explore another source language.