Vanilla

vanilla
    adj 1: flavored with vanilla extract; "he liked vanilla ice
           cream"
    2: plain and without any extras or adornments; "the most common
       type of bond is the straight or plain vanilla bond"; "the
       basic car is known as the vanilla version"
    n 1: any of numerous climbing plants of the genus Vanilla having
         fleshy leaves and clusters of large waxy highly fragrant
         white or green or topaz flowers
    2: a flavoring prepared from vanilla beans macerated in alcohol
       (or imitating vanilla beans) [syn: {vanilla}, {vanilla
       extract}]
    3: a distinctive fragrant flavor characteristic of vanilla beans
    

Vanilla \Va*nil"la\, n. [NL., fr. Sp. vainilla, dim. of Sp.
   vaina a sheath, a pod, L. vagina; because its grains, or
   seeds, are contained in little pods.]
   [1913 Webster]
   1. (Bot.) A genus of climbing orchidaceous plants, natives of
      tropical America.
      [1913 Webster]

   2. The long podlike capsules of {Vanilla planifolia}, and
      {Vanilla claviculata}, remarkable for their delicate and
      agreeable odor, for the volatile, odoriferous oil
      extracted from them; also, the flavoring extract made from
      the capsules, extensively used in confectionery,
      perfumery, etc.
      [1913 Webster]

   Note: As a medicine, vanilla is supposed to possess powers
         analogous to valerian, while, at the same time, it is
         far more grateful.
         [1913 Webster]

   {Cuban vanilla}, a sweet-scented West Indian composite shrub
      ({Eupatorium Dalea}).

   {Vanilla bean}, the long capsule of the vanilla plant.

   {Vanilla grass}. Same as {Holy grass}, under {Holy}.
      [1913 Webster]
    

vanilla
 adj.

   [from the default flavor of ice cream in the U.S.] Ordinary {flavor},
   standard. When used of food, very often does not mean that the food is
   flavored with vanilla extract! For example, vanilla wonton soup means
   ordinary wonton soup, as opposed to hot-and-sour wonton soup. Applied
   to hardware and software, as in "Vanilla Version 7 Unix can't run on a
   vanilla 11/34." Also used to orthogonalize chip nomenclature; for
   instance, a 74V00 means what TI calls a 7400, as distinct from a
   74LS00, etc. This word differs from {canonical} in that the latter
   means `default', whereas vanilla simply means `ordinary'. For example,
   when hackers go on a {great-wall}, hot-and-sour soup is the
   {canonical} soup to get (because that is what most of them usually
   order) even though it isn't the vanilla (wonton) soup.
    

vanilla

   1. (Default flavour of ice cream in the US) Ordinary
   {flavour}, standard.  When used of food, very often does not
   mean that the food is flavoured with vanilla extract!  For
   example, "vanilla wonton soup" means ordinary wonton soup, as
   opposed to hot-and-sour wonton soup.  Applied to hardware and
   software, as in "Vanilla {Version 7} {Unix} can't run on a
   vanilla {PDP 11}/34."  Also used to orthogonalise chip
   nomenclature; for instance, a 74V00 means what TI calls a
   7400, as distinct from a 74LS00, etc.  This word differs from
   {canonical} in that the latter means "default", whereas
   vanilla simply means "ordinary".  For example, when hackers go
   to a chinese restaurant, hot-and-sour wonton soup is the
   {canonical} wonton soup to get (because that is what most of
   them usually order) even though it isn't the vanilla wonton
   soup.

   [{Jargon File}]

   (1994-11-04)

   2. {Snobol4} by {Catspaw, Inc.} for {MS-DOS}.

   (ftp://cs.arizona.edu/snobol4/vanilla.arc).

   (1992-02-05)