A genus of perennial, herbaceous, endogenous plants of great size, including the banana (Musa sapientum), the plantain (Musa paradisiaca of Linnæus, but probably not a distinct species), the Abyssinian (Musa Ensete), the Philippine Island (Musa textilis, which yields Manila hemp), and about eighteen other species. See Illust. of Banana and Plantain.
Musa is one of three genera in the family Musaceae; it includes the bananas and plantains. There are over 50 species of Musa with a broad variety of uses. The word banana came via Portuguese or Spanish from a West African language (possibly Wolof) circa 1597 and is now in most Western languages, whereas the scientific name for the genus is similar to the Arabic and Persian names for just the fruit.