English

An eggplant.

White eggplant fruits, for whose resemblance to chicken eggs the plant is named

Alternative forms

• egg-plant

Noun

eggplant ‎(countable and uncountable, plural eggplants) (Canada, US, Australia, New Zealand)

1. (Canada, US, Australia, New Zealand) The plant Solanum melongena.
2. (Canada, US, Australia, New Zealand) The edible fruit of the Solanum melongena: an aubergine.
3. (Canada, US) A dark purple color, like that of the skin of this fruit.

   eggplant colour:

4. (US, slang, derogatory, offensive) A black person (used mainly by Italian-Americans).
   • 2004, Wendy Coakley-Thompson, Back to Life:

     "Why am I not surprised?" This was the limit. "You know, I'm black enough for his family to yell eggplant-this and nigger-that at me," she said.

   • 2006, Jerome Charyn, Raised by wolves: the turbulent art and times of Quentin Tarantino

     What else can he do? But Hopper continues his riff. "Sicilians still carry that nigger gene . . . Your ancestors are niggers. You're part eggplant."

Synonyms

• (the plant or its fruit): aubergine (UK), brinjal (India, Malaysia), baingan (India), brown jolly (West Indes, dated)
• (the fruit): melongene (UK)

Translations

See also

• eggplant on Wikipedia.Wikipedia