pônais

Guernésiais

Alternative forms

• paunais
• pânais

Etymology

From Old French pasnaie, from Latin pastinaca (“parsnip, carrot”), from pastinum (“two-pronged fork”); related to pastinare (“to dig up the ground”).

Noun

pônais m (plural pônais)

1. parsnip
   • 1883, Nicholas Guilbert, ‘L'Ami Pierre’:

     V'là not bouan vier ami Pierre, / A serellaïr dans ses pânais [...]. (There's our good old friend Peter, weeding his parsnips.)

   • 2006, Peggy Collenette, ‘Au shaoux du Vouest’, P'tites Lures Guernésiaises, Cromwell Press 2006, p. 16:

     Quand nous vait les belles paunais et les manifique carottes. (Look at the beautiful parsnips and the magnificent carrots.)