string bean

English

Alternative forms

• stringbean, string-bean

Etymology

Named for the tough, fibrous string running along the length of the pod (even though it is not present in some modern varieties).

Pronunciation

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Noun

string bean (plural string beans)

1. Any long, slender green bean.
   • 1851 April 9, Nathaniel Hawthorne, The House of the Seven Gables, a Romance, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor, Reed, and Fields, →OCLC:

     Summer squashes almost in their golden blossom; cucumbers, now evincing a tendency to spread away from the main stock, and ramble far and wide; two or three rows of string-beans and as many more that were about to festoon themselves on poles;

   • 1963, Bob Dylan, “Talkin' World War III Blues”, in The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan:

     Well, I rung the fallout shelter bell / And I leaned my head and I gave a yell / “Give me a string bean, I’m a hungry man” / A shotgun fired and away I ran

   1. A common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris)
   2. An immature runner bean (Phaseolus coccineus)
   3. A yardlong bean (Vigna unguiculata subsp. sesquipedalis)
   4. A hyacinth bean (Lablab purpureus)
2. (figuratively) A tall and thin person.
   • 1925, Sinclair Lewis, chapter 15, in Arrowsmith, New York: New American Library, published 1961:

     My way o’ doing things suits me, and I don’t figure on changing it for you or any other half-baked young string-bean.

   • 1969, Philip Roth, Portnoy's Complaint‎, New York: Vintage, published 1994, page 31:

     She was once a tall stringbean of a girl whom the boys called “Red” in high school.

Derived terms

• stringbeany

Translations

a long, slender variety of green bean

Arabic: Moroccan Arabic: لوبيا خضرة (lūbya ḵaḍra) Armenian: թելով լոբի (tʻelov lobi) Brunei Malay: kacang buncis Burmese: ပဲတောင့်ရှည် (my) (pai:taung.hrany) French: haricot vert (fr) m Greek: αμπελοφάσουλο (el) n (ampelofásoulo) Hungarian: zöldbab (hu) Italian: fagiolino (it) m Macedonian: боранија f (boranija) Malay: kacang buncis Maltese: fażola twila f Polish: fasola szparagowa (pl) f, fasolka szparagowa (pl) f Romanian: fasole lunguiață f, fasole verde f Russian: стручко́вая фасо́ль (stručkóvaja fasólʹ), волокни́стая фасо́ль (voloknístaja fasólʹ) Spanish: vainica f (Costa Rica), habichuela (es) f (Cuba) Tagalog: ayap, paayap

tall and thin person

Finnish: kukkakeppi (fi) French: échalas (fr) m Italian: spilungone (it) m Polish: dryblas (pl) m Portuguese: trinca-espinhas m or f Romanian: lungan (ro) m, găligan (ro) m Russian: жердь (ru) (žerdʹ) Spanish: larguirucho (es) m

common bean — see common bean

runner bean — see runner bean

yardlong bean — see yardlong bean

hyacinth bean — see hyacinth bean

References

• string bean on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• banterings