Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.

Definition: Banana Republic |
Banana RepublicNoun1. A small country (especially in Central America) that is politically unstable and whose economy is dominated by foreign companies and depends on one export (such as bananas). Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
| Domain | Usage | |
Movie/TV Titles | Banana republic (1979) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
The United States government (in particular the Central Intelligence Agency) is often accused maintaining other countries as "banana republics", in Central America, for example, from where the term arose.
Traditionally, the controlling foreign power need not be a state; a corporation such as the United Fruit Company can play the role. The imposition of such an arrangement can be appreciated in a poem by Pablo Neruda, titled "La United Fruit Co." in Spanish.
The term has come to be used to describe a generally unstable or "backwards" dictatorial regime or a country where fraudulent elections are regularly held.
Banana Republic is also the name of a chain of clothing stores owned by The Gap.
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Banana republic."
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Economic History | Colombia | Manufacturers and licensees of well-known labels from the U.S. and Europe in the Colombian market are: Luigi, Pierre Cardin, Guy Laroche, Yves Saint Laurent, Nautica, Guess, The Limited, Francois Girbaud, Unlimited, Diesel, Tommy Hilfiger, The Gap, Boss, Liz Claiborne, Structure, Banana Republic, Levi's, Dockers, Arrow, Van Heusen, Express, Pepe, Berkshire, Maidenform, Formfit Rogers, Triumph, Benetton, Vassarette, Peter Pan, and Victoria's Secret. (references) |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day |
banana republic | 9,992 |
banana republic.com | 301 |
banana republic coupon | 137 |
banana republic outlet | 128 |
banana republic store | 69 |
banana republic clothing | 45 |
banana republic factory store | 28 |
banana republic online | 23 |
banana republic clothing store | 22 |
banana republic shoes | 18 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Language | Translations for "banana republic"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
German | bananenrepublik. (various references) | |
Pig Latin | ananabay epublicray.(various references) | |
Russian | малоразвитое государство, банановая республика. (various references) | |
Spanish | república bananera. (various references) | |
Turkish | ekonomisi meyve ihracatına dayalı küçük ülke. (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "a-a-a-b-b-c-e-i-l-n-n-p-r-u" | |
-4 letters: republican. | |
-5 letters: carnelian, incapable, incunable, incurable, lacunaria, planarian, unbalance. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
Hexadecimal (or equivalents, 770AD-1900s) (references)42 61 6E 61 6E 61      52 65 70 75 62 6C 69 63 |
| Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519; backwards) (references)
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Binary Code (1918-1938, probably earlier) (references)01000010 01100001 01101110 01100001 01101110 01100001 00100000 01010010 01100101 01110000 01110101 01100010 01101100 01101001 01100011 |
HTML Code (1990) (references)B a n a n a   R e p u b l i c |
ISO 10646 (1991-1993) (references)0042 0061 006E 0061 006E 0061      0052 0065 0070 0075 0062 006C 0069 0063 |
Encryption (beginner's substitution cypher): (references)36678067806725271828768787569 |
| 1. Definition 2. Usage: Modern 3. Quotations: Non-fiction 4. Expressions: Internet | 5. Translations: Modern 6. Anagrams 7. Orthography 8. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.