ananas (French)

Where does "ananas" come from?

The French noun 'ananas', meaning 'pineapple'[1], entered the language through visitors to the Indies[1]. It was borrowed from Spanish 'ananás' and Portuguese 'ananás'[1][3], which both trace back to the Old Tupi word 'naná' meaning 'pineapple'[1][3][4]. This Indigenous term itself descends further from Proto-Tupi-Guarani '*nanã'[4].

Open questions

• The final s in Portuguese ananás is unetymological and possibly results from a back-formation from ananazeiro. [2]

Full etymology tree

• ananas (French), 'pineapple'
  • borrowed ananás (Spanish), 'pineapple plant'
    • borrowed ananás (Portuguese), 'pineapple plant (Ananas comosus)'
      • borrowed naná (Old Tupi), 'pineapple plant (Ananas comosus)'
        • inherited *nanã (Proto-Tupi-Guarani), 'pineapple'
      • influenced by ananazeiro (Portuguese)

Ancestors

• ananás (Spanish)
• ananás (Portuguese)
• naná (Old Tupi)

Descendants and derived words

• နာနတ် (Burmese)
• ananas (Danish)
• ananaso (Esperanto)
• z'anana (Haitian Creole)
• ananas (Turkish)

Sources

1. ananas (French) - Wiktionary
2. ananás (Portuguese) - Wiktionary
3. ananás (Spanish) - Wiktionary
4. naná (Old Tupi) - Wiktionary

Updated September 2026

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Etymology data from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · About Miraris