different between maize vs cocoyam

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Spanish maíz, from Taíno *mahis, *mahisi, from Proto-Arawak *marik?. Cognate with Arawak marisi, Wayuu maiki.

Pronunciation

• enPR: m?z, IPA^(key): /me?z/
• Rhymes: -e?z
• Homophone: maze

Noun

maize (countable and uncountable, plural maizes)

1. Corn; a type of grain of the species Zea mays.

   • A fundamental creative act of American man was the development of maize. For it was maize that made possible and sustained the whole Peruvian civilization as well as Mexican and Central American ones. Exactly where it originated is not known, but corn was found in pre-Mayan graves dating to 3000 B.C.

Synonyms

• (Zea mays): corn (US English, Canadian English); green corn, Indian corn, sugar corn, sweet corn

Translations

Further reading

• maize on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Zea mays on Wikispecies.Wikispecies

Latvian

Etymology

From Proto-Baltic *maiž-, an ablaut variant of *miež- (whence Latvian mieži (“barley”)), from Proto-Indo-European *mey?-, probably from the stem *h?meh?- (“to cut; to mow”) modified into *mey-, and with an added element *? (whence Proto-Baltic *ž, whence Latvian z). Cognates include Old Prussian mayse (“barley”) (misspelled as wayse in the 16th-century source), Old Iranian *maiz- "to sow".

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [màjz?]

Noun

maize f (5th declension)

1. bread (foodstuff, baked from wheat, rye, sometimes corn)

2. bread dough

3. (poetic) cereals, cereal grains, especially rye, wheat

4. (figuratively) food, nutrition

5. (figuratively) essential, necessary element

6. (figuratively) livelihood, means of supporting oneself; work

Declension

Derived terms

• baltmaize, balta maize
• maizn?ca
• maiznieks, maizniece
• rupjmaize, rupja maize
• sviestmaize

References

English

Etymology

coco +? yam, because old cocoyam was planted in coconut groves and resembled yams. New cocoyam was so named because it resembled old cocoyam.

Noun

cocoyam (plural cocoyams)

1. New cocoyam: Xanthosoma, particularly Xanthosoma sagittifolium, or the edible root of that plant; malanga.
2. Old cocoyam: Colocasia esculenta; taro.

Synonyms

• (new cocoyam): yautia, new cocoyam, otoe, otoy, macabo, malanga, quequisque
• (old cocyam): taro, dasheen
• (to be sorted): tanier, tannia, tannier, taioba

Translations