Indian corn
MaizeMaize.
Meaning
3 senses(uncommon, uncountable)Maize.
Hartmais
(uncountable)A variety of maize in which the kernels are variously coloured, rather than being all of the same colour.
(uncountable)A variety of candy corn that contains chocolate in addition to honey-based candy.
- tall annual cereal grass bearing kernels on large ears: widely cultivated in America in many varieties; the principal cereal in Mexico and Central and South America since pre-Columbian times
Translations
1 languagesBy meaning 1
Origin
From Indian + corn. Since the early 17th century. Before the Columbian Exchange, the EngliFrom Indian + corn. Since the early 17th century. Before the Columbian Exchange, the English word corn meant any of various cereal grains, with usage much like the word grain is often used today. When maize, a New World crop, was introduced to English-speakers, they called it Indian corn as a natural term for "the kind of corn (grain) that comes from the Indies." The notion of the geography was very fuzzy at the time for most Europeans; most English speakers at the time did not have a clear notion that the East Indies and the West Indies were not the same thing or adjacent portions of one thing, so the word Indies encompassed vast overseas scope. Eventually English-speakers in North America came to use the word corn to mean maize when not otherwise specified, and they came to use the term Indian corn to mean a certain fancy type of maize.
Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source
Synonyms
5 synonymsWord family
1 related wordsLessons for this word
1 lessons- A1Countable and uncountable nouns — Because it can be uncountable
See also
neighbours in the dictionaryDictionary text adapted from Wiktionary (Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0) and Open English WordNet / Princeton WordNet (CC BY 4.0, WordNet License); shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. Example sentences and recordings are credited where they appear.