vanilla

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
vanilla/vəˈnɪlə/

▶noun

• 1 a substance obtained from vanilla pods or produced artificially and used to flavour sweet foods or to impart a fragrant scent to cosmetic preparations.

• 2 a tropical climbing orchid with fragrant flowers and long pod-like fruit. [Vanilla planifolia and related species.]

▶adjective informal having no special features.

– origin C17: from Sp. vainilla ‘pod’, dimin. of vaina ‘sheath, pod’, from L. vagina ‘sheath’.