Meaning

noun East Indian tree that puts out aerial shoots that grow down into the soil forming additional trunks

noun a loose fitting jacket; originally worn in India

originFrom Portuguese baniano, from Arabic بَنِيَان (baniyān), from Gujarati વાણિયો (vāṇiyo, “merchant”), from Sanskrit वाणिज (vāṇijá), from earlier वणिज् (vaṇíj, “merchant, trader”). The name appears to have been first bestowed popularly on a famous tree of this species growing near Bandar Abbas, under which the Bannians, or Hindu traders settled at that port, had built a little pagoda. Doublet of…

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0