Benne

name, noun

name, noun ·1 syllable ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Sesame. attributive, uncountable

    "benne oil; benne seed"

  2. 2
    East Indian annual erect herb; source of sesame seed or benniseed and sesame oil wordnet
Proper Noun
  1. 1
    A surname.

Synonyms

All synonyms
bennibennysesamesesamesesamum indicum

Example

More examples

"Benne (sesame) seeds were secretly brought to America on the slave ships by black women who had used them in their native cooking. Benne seed cookies and candy were made by black cooks in Charleston and other lowcountry South Carolina locations."

Etymology

Etymology 1

From Malay bene, or possibly from Wolof or Eastern Maninkakan.

Etymology 2

Borrowed from North German Benne, a variant of the surname Benn. Borrowed also from French Benne, a metonymic occupational surname for the maker or driver of a cart.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.