banyan day

banyan day

English

Etymology

According to the OED, the term is borrowed from the Banyans in the East Indies, a caste that ate nothing that had life.

Noun

banyan day (plural banyan days)

1. (dated, Britain, nautical, idiomatic) In British naval tradition, a day of the week when galley kitchens served no meat on board ship.
   • 1819, James Hardy Vaux, Memoirs of James Hardy Vaux, Chapter XVIII, p. 204–205:

     This was a favourable circumstance in one respect to myself and the ship's company, for as Tuesday is a sumptuous day in point of allowance in the navy, beef and pudding being the prescribed fare for dinner, we by this accident feasted two days together; whereas had it occurred on a Monday, Wednesday, or Friday, two successive banyan (or starvation) days would have been our dismal portion.

2. (Britain, nautical, idiomatic) A picnic or cookout for the ship's crew.

Alternative forms

• Banian day, banian day

See also

• Daily routine on HMS Victory

References

• [Francis] Grose [et al.] (1811), “Banyan day”, in Lexicon Balatronicum. A Dictionary of Buckish Slang, University Wit, and Pickpocket Eloquence. […], London: Printed for C. Chappell, […], OCLC 23927885.