PLAIN VANILLA

PRONUNCIATION: (PLAYN vuh-NIL-uh)

MEANING: adjective: The basic, plain, or bland.

ETYMOLOGY: From plain + vanilla, from Spanish vainilla (little pod), from vaina (sheath), from Latin vaginα (sheath) + -illa (diminutive suffix). Earliest documented use: 1942.

NOTES:
Once vanillin, the organic compound that gives vanilla its flavor, was synthesized, it became cheap to use vanilla flavor. It became the default flavor of ice-cream and soon the term was used for anything basic, unadorned, without any extras.
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PLAIN MANILLA - a simple unadorned Philippine city

SWAIN VANILLA - an uunremarkable, ordinary-loooking, but dependable suitor

PLAID VANILLA - a sweet Scottish dessert flavor