Table of Contents
The word for today is…
vanilla (noun, adjective) –
noun
1a : vanilla bean
b : a commercially important extract of the vanilla bean that is used especially as a flavoring
2 : any of a genus (Vanilla) of tropical American climbing epiphytic orchids
adjective
1 : flavored with vanilla
2 : lacking distinction : plain, ordinary, conventional
Source : Merriam -Webster
Etymology : For lexicographers, vanilla has more flavor than chocolate, because it adds a tasty synonym for plain to the English menu. The noun vanilla was first served up in 1662, but it took almost 200 years for its adjective use to become established for things, like ice and sugar, flavored with vanilla. By the 1970s vanilla was perceived as being the plain flavor of the ice-cream world, and people began using the word itself to describe anything plain, ordinary, or conventional.
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