Banana/bananas

The Portuguese discovered this fruit in West Africa and borrowed the word from some local African language as long ago as the 16th century. People, however, have only started to go bananas or wild with excitement or rage since about 1957 in America, according to the OED. Before that, in the 1950s, top banana meant top billing in US vaudeville shows and has since become synonymous with the head person in an organisation. In the UK, the abbreviation ‘nana has become a term of derision as in calling someone a right ‘nana and this usage dates from c.1960.