You searched for: “banco”
banco; banco, banko
banco (BANG koh) (noun)
A bet in certain gambling games, as baccarat and chemin de fer, for the entire amount allowed by the casino banker: The gambler made a banco that matched the full amount in the bank, to the exclusion of all of his previous lower bets.
banco, banko (BANG koh) (noun)
An African term for mud (local earth/clay plus water) mixed with straw and/or husks of cereals (plus cow dung which hardens to a smooth solid) and is used for coating walls and ceilings: The buildings which utilize banco, or mudbricks, are found in several areas of Africa and the use of banco is characterized by its cooling properties for those who live in such structures.

"This African banco term which refers to such "earthen construction practices" came from Manding, a widespread language group in West Africa."

—Hatumere: Islamic design in West Africa;
by Labelle Prussin; University of California Press;
Berkeley, California; 1986; page 137.

The Manding languages are a fairly mutually intelligible group of dialects or languages in West Africa, belonging to the Mande languages.

Their best-known members are Bambara (the most widely spoken language in Mali), Mandinka (the main language of Gambia), Maninka (or Malinké, a major language of Guinea), and Dioula (Dyula or Jula) (an important language of the northern Côte d'Ivoire and western Burkina Faso).

"Manding languages", Wikipedia.

When the Smith family went on a safari to Africa they stopped at a banco building and were intrigued to discover a casino.

When the tourists were visiting a group of natives in their village, the car that the foreign visitors were using, broke down and so they had to spend the night in a banko structure until the vehicle could be replaced the next day.

This entry is located in the following unit: Confusing Words Clarified: Group B; Homonyms, Homophones, Homographs, Synonyms, Polysemes, etc. (page 1)