What does “banano” mean, and is it the same as “plátano”?

Banano is one of several regional Spanish words for “banana,” alongside plátano, guineo, and cambur. It’s the everyday choice in Colombia, Ecuador, and countries like Honduras, Nicaragua, and Guatemala. In the clip, banano goes straight into a frozen-yogurt popsicle — proof it’s the plain, no-fuss banana, not the starchy plantain some countries cook instead.

Plátano is the trickiest of the four: in Spain, Mexico, and Peru it usually means the sweet banana, but in countries that eat plantains daily it can shift toward “plantain” instead, pushing banano, guineo, or cambur in to cover the sweet fruit. Cambur is used only in Venezuela, reportedly borrowed from Guanche, the pre-Hispanic language of the Canary Islands. Guineo covers much of the Caribbean, including Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic.