Banyan – מילון אנגלי-אנגלי
banyan
n.
East Indian fig tree
Banyan
banyan
Noun
1. East Indian tree that puts out aerial shoots that grow down into the soil forming additional trunks
(synonym) banyan tree, banian, banian tree, Indian banyan, East Indian fig tree, Ficus bengalensis
(hypernym) fig tree
2. a loose fitting jacket; originally worn in India
(synonym) banian
(hypernym) jacket
Banyan
(n.)
A tree of the same genus as the common fig, and called the Indian fig (Ficus Indica), whose branches send shoots to the ground, which take root and become additional trunks, until it may be the tree covers some acres of ground and is able to shelter thousands of men.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913), edited by Noah Porter.
About
Banyan
Banyan (Banian) The Indian fig tree (Ficus bengalensis of the Urticaceae), a shade tree remarkable for the enormous area that a single tree often covers, since roots are developed from the branches, which descend to the ground and take root. Inasmuch as each descending root in time becomes a tree trunk with branches of its own, which in their turn send roots to the ground, the gradual spread of the tree is theoretically indefinite and can reach more than a hundred yards in diameter. It was named tree of the merchants, as it was customary in olden times to hold markets under the shelter of these trees, called bar in Hindi, vata (covering) in Sanskrit.
In theosophy, used to express the peak of human evolutionary attainment on the earth-chain, the ever-living-human-Banyan or Wondrous Being (SD 1:207). Members of the hierarchy of Compassion under the Wondrous Being are referred to as tendrils descending from the heights to the lower planes of earth, these themselves aspiring to become like their spiritual superior.
