noun
Meaning 1
Maize.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: uncommon, uncountable
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
Phrase guide
Indian corn
Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.
Sound
Pronunciation
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noun
Meaning 2
A variety of maize in which the kernels are variously coloured, rather than being all of the same colour.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: uncountable
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: flint corn, calico corn
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 3
A variety of candy corn that contains chocolate in addition to honey-based candy.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: uncountable
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 4
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
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: corn, maize, Zea mays
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: cereal, cereal grass
Narrower terms: field corn, sweet corn, sugar corn, green corn, sweet corn plant, Zea mays rugosa, Zea saccharata, popcorn, Zea mays everta
History
Etymology
From 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.
Across languages
Translations
4 source translations are retained for this English entry.
- German: Hartmais — a type of maize
- Norman: maïs — a type of maize
- Pawnee: kiciirit — a type of maize
- Tzotzil: ixim — a type of maize