banana oil
idiom

- superfluous, disingenuous, or nonsensical talk, especially that which is meant to flatter someone or exaggerate something

- amyl acetate, CH3CO2C5H11, a colorless liquid with a bananalike odor, used in flavorings, in making lacquers, etc.

Merriam-Webster, The Free Dictionary

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PHRASE ORIGIN

“Banana oil” is the common name for amyl acetate (C₇H₁₄O₂), a mixture of isomers derived from amyl alcohol. It has the distinctive scent of bananas yet contains no actual bananas. In its literal sense, it’s used mainly as a paint solvent and in artificial fruit flavourings.

Synonymous with “nonsense,” The Concise New Partridge Dictionary dates it to 1924. The meaning may have been influenced by “snake oil,” an earlier popular term for fraudulent medicines that later also came to mean any form of deception or empty talk.

The irony is that "banana oil" became synonymous with “nonsense," precisely because the chemical compound called "banana oil" has nothing to do with actual bananas—it just smells like them, making it a perfect metaphor for something that appears genuine but is actually artificial or fake.

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BANANA PHRASES

- banana republic = a small, politically unstable country dependent on a single export crop and foreign investment (Bananenstaat)

- go bananas = to become very excited, angry, or crazy (verrückt werden)

- top banana = the most important person in a group or organization (der Boss, der Oberste)

- second banana = a person in a subordinate or supporting role (zweite Geige, Nebendarsteller)

- banana split = to leave quickly or suddenly (abhauen, sich davonmachen)

- slip on a banana peel = to make an embarrassing mistake or have bad luck (einen peinlichen Fehler machen)

- banana hammock = slang for very brief men's swimwear (Männer-Stringtanga)

- drive someone bananas = to make someone very annoyed or frustrated (jemanden zur Weißglut bringen)

- banana bender = Australian slang for a person from Queensland (Queensländer)

- banana oil = nonsense, insincere talk, or flattery (Quatsch, Schmeichelei)

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SYNONYMS

all my eye, all my eye and betty martin, applesauce, babble, bafflegab, ballyhoo, BANANA OIL, bandini, baragouin, batcrap, bilgewater, blah, blah-blah, blarney, blather, blatherskite, blether, bluff, bobbins, bosh, brown-nosing, bullshit, bullspeak, bunkum, bushwah, cajolery, chatter, clamjamfrey, claptrap, clatfart, cobblers, codswallop, double dutch, eyewash, falderal, fiddle-faddle, flannel, flannelling, flapdoodle, flattery, flimflam, flummery, folderol, foolishness, footle, fudge, galimatias, gammon, gammon and spinach, gas, gibber, gibberish, gobbledygook, guff, hogwash, hocus-pocus, honeyed words, hooey, horse feathers, hot air, jabber, jargon, jibber-jabber, jimjam, jive, junk, macaroni, malarkey, moonshine, mumbo jumbo, nonsense, palaver, pap, pie in the sky, piffle, poppycock, prattle, puffery, put-on, rhubarb, rigmarole, rot, rubbish, schmoozing, skimble-skamble, snake oil, soft soap, spiel, stuff and nonsense, sweet talk, taffy, tall story, tosh, trash, tripe, trumpery, twaddle, waffle, weasel words, wheedling, whiff-whaff, wind, word salad

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SMUGGLE
 OWAD into a conversation today, say something like:

“Over 100 synonyms for BANANA OIL is suggestive of how prevalent such talk is in the English-speaking world.”

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