Courgettes and Tuning Forks

[Andrei]

Any theories, hypotheses, opinions, urban legends (the very stuff of forums), even facts are welcome, as to the nomenclature of Spades and Bananas?

[Themis]

The guy who proposed the names, was a peasant in Tahiti.

[The Grand Wazoo]

This website ambitiously alleging to be "Mobilizing banana science for sustainable livelihoods" discusses the taxonomy of bananas, but I'm not convinced that's what you're looking for!

[Reffc]

I think the answer is unfortunately quite dull.

"Banana's" were originally (and still are) referred to as 4mm connector plugs. The design originally had between 2 and 4 length-wise spring sections coming from the main plug which grip the 4mm sockets and provide electrical contact. It's the appearance of these springs which gave rise to the term "banana plug"

Spades, likewise. Viewed side-on, the hollow shaft which takes the bare wire steps down to a flat spayed end which sort of resembles the head of a spade side-on, hence the term "spade connector".

That's it I'm afraid.

If that's not exciting enough then there's always the alternative:

Banana plugs are real bananas which have been dried by Papau New Guinnea head hunters and shrunk to 1/20th original size to be used as sweet smelling nose piercings...until discovered by a wandering hifi accessories salesman out in the bush who had them cryogenically frozen and gold plated, finding not only were they an exact fit for 4mm sockets but that they sounded superior to the nickel plated nails used initially.

Spades were originally fashioned from 1950's versions of "action man" accessories in which during the post-war era, in an attempt to get more people to "grow their own", the equivalent of action men came with gardening implements including spades. A well known hifi manufacturer got fed up twisting cable for connecting his quad speakers so pinched his son's action man's tin plated spade, cut a slot in it and soldered his bare wire to it in a Eureka moment.

The last two explanations are of course total inventions but the real explanation was just so dull

[MCRU]

Any theories, hypotheses, opinions, urban legends (the very stuff of forums), even facts are welcome, as to the nomenclature of Spades and Bananas?

what about bare wire? surely that should also be included?

[Themis]

Banana plugs are real bananas which have been dried by Papau New Guinnea head hunters and shrunk to 1/20th original size to be used as sweet smelling nose piercings...until discovered by a wandering hifi accessories salesman out in the bush who had them cryogenically frozen and gold plated, finding not only were they an exact fit for 4mm sockets but that they sounded superior to the nickel plated nails used initially.

Spades were originally fashioned from 1950's versions of "action man" accessories in which during the post-war era, in an attempt to get more people to "grow their own", the equivalent of action men came with gardening implements including spades. A well known hifi manufacturer got fed up twisting cable for connecting his quad speakers so pinched his son's action man's tin plated spade, cut a slot in it and soldered his bare wire to it in a Eureka moment.

The last two explanations are of course total inventions but the real explanation was just so dull

I almost fell from my chair !!!

[Andrei]

Thanks for the insights guys. For my part I used to that spades were the connectors of choice and anyone who used anything else had gone bananas.