Vanilla

4 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Vanilla \Va*nil"la\, n. [NL., fr. Sp. vainilla, dim. of Sp.
     vaina a sheath, a pod, L. vagina; because its grains, or
     seeds, are contained in little pods.]
     [1913 Webster]
     1. (Bot.) A genus of climbing orchidaceous plants, natives of
        tropical America.


        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. The long podlike capsules of {Vanilla planifolia}, and
        {Vanilla claviculata}, remarkable for their delicate and
        agreeable odor, for the volatile, odoriferous oil
        extracted from them; also, the flavoring extract made from
        the capsules, extensively used in confectionery,
        perfumery, etc.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     Note: As a medicine, vanilla is supposed to possess powers
           analogous to valerian, while, at the same time, it is
           far more grateful.
           [1913 Webster]
  
     {Cuban vanilla}, a sweet-scented West Indian composite shrub
        ({Eupatorium Dalea}).
  
     {Vanilla bean}, the long capsule of the vanilla plant.
  
     {Vanilla grass}. Same as {Holy grass}, under {Holy}.
        [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  vanilla
       n 1: any of numerous climbing plants of the genus Vanilla having
            fleshy leaves and clusters of large waxy highly fragrant
            white or green or topaz flowers
       2: a flavoring prepared from vanilla beans macerated in alcohol
          (or imitating vanilla beans) [syn: {vanilla extract}]
       3: a distinctive fragrant flavor characteristic of vanilla
          beans

From Jargon File (4.3.1, 29 Jun 2001) [jargon]:

  vanilla adj. [from the default flavor of ice cream in the U.S.]
     Ordinary {flavor}, standard. When used of food, very often does not mean
     that the food is flavored with vanilla extract! For example, `vanilla
     wonton soup' means ordinary wonton soup, as opposed to hot-and-sour
     wonton soup. Applied to hardware and software, as in "Vanilla Version 7
     Unix can't run on a vanilla 11/34." Also used to orthogonalize chip
     nomenclature; for instance, a 74V00 means what TI calls a 7400, as
     distinct from a 74LS00, etc. This word differs from {canonical} in that
     the latter means `default', whereas vanilla simply means `ordinary'. For
     example, when hackers go on a {great-wall}, hot-and-sour soup is the
     {canonical} soup to get (because that is what most of them usually
     order) even though it isn't the vanilla (wonton) soup.
  
  

From The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (27 SEP 03) [foldoc]:

  vanilla
       
          1. (Default flavour of ice cream in the US) Ordinary
          {flavour}, standard.  When used of food, very often does not
          mean that the food is flavoured with vanilla extract!  For
          example, "vanilla wonton soup" means ordinary wonton soup, as
          opposed to hot-and-sour wonton soup.  Applied to hardware and
          software, as in "Vanilla {Version 7} {Unix} can't run on a
          vanilla {PDP 11}/34."  Also used to orthogonalise chip
          nomenclature; for instance, a 74V00 means what TI calls a
          7400, as distinct from a 74LS00, etc.  This word differs from
          {canonical} in that the latter means "default", whereas
          vanilla simply means "ordinary".  For example, when hackers go
          to a chinese restaurant, hot-and-sour wonton soup is the
          {canonical} wonton soup to get (because that is what most of
          them usually order) even though it isn't the vanilla wonton
          soup.
       
          [{Jargon File}]
       
          (1994-11-04)
       
          2. {Snobol4} by {Catspaw, Inc.} for {MS-DOS}.
       
          {(ftp://cs.arizona.edu/snobol4/vanilla.arc)}.
       
          (1992-02-05)