Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Zea Mays |
Zea MaysNoun1. 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. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
| Domain | Definition |
Botanical | In Darien lowlands, corn is less common than rice, but it is frequently found in the milpas. Green corn, cob and all, may be eaten after roasting or boiling. The husks have been used in preparing a paper, which, if ground fine enough, is so transparent, as to make a good substitute for glass. Corn oil is bland, pleasant tasting, ans slow to turn rancis. It can be turned into a good-quality soap. Pipes can be fashioned from the cobs, and the silks are cool smoking. Corn furnishes a nurishing astringent, resolvent food, and may be converted into starch for making bread, or fermented to make beer and alcohol. An American, fresh out of a high yielding American corn field, might be aghast to see the huge forest trees that are felled and partially burned to clear off an area for a lean crop of tough corn in Panama, hardly seeming worth the tremendous effort. In northern Central America, nearly all the corn grown is consumed as tortillas, made by treating the maiz with lye, grinding, mixing with water, and cooking briefly. Maya Indians let the corn dry on the stalk and then store it. Several dishes are prepared from it. masa: mixed with lime and waater, boiled a few hours, cooled and washed. This is ground to form a dough, the masa; tortilla: the masa is patted into a cake and baked in ashes; atole: the masa is thinned with boiling water, and salt or sugar or honey is added to make a beverage; pozole: boil the maiz in clear water after boiling in lime water; pour off the water and grind, mix with sugar, honey, or salt, then ball it up and take it to the field. Add water whenever hungry; pinole: toast maiz on a griddle, add cinnamon, anise seed, and pepper, grind and boil in water. Among the Bayano Cuna, corn is stored on a special shelf located directly above the fire site. The kernels are ground, the meal added to water and boiled. After cooling, the gruel (inaniquet) is drunk. It is sometimes mixed with sugarcane juice and ground cocoa (siva) to form a beverage known as cainisolicuagua. Corn and meat are boiled together yielding obsa. Even at the time of the conquest, the Darien Cuevas and the riverine Indians of the Gulf of Uraba called corn hobba. Still among the Cuna, oba is God of Creation and God of Corn. Indians often throw young corn on the cob in the pot. Ailigandi Cuna make a cornstick, long strings of native cornmeal dough, baked in ashes (!). The cob, or opkala, is often used to plug up water jugs made of totumo. There are at least 22 ways of using corn in Colombia. Panamanian bushmen preparing for long journeys often take bollos of corn along with them. Catios of the Gulf of Uruba have quite a corn terminology based on pe, the Choco word for corn, peburua-ear of corn; pejansoa-corn cob; pejonumua-corn storage bin. Among the Chame Choco, pechare-dry corn; pesintu-cornplant. (references) |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
Synonyms: Zea MaysSynonyms: corn (n), maize (n). (additional references) |
Crosswords: Zea Mays |
| Non-English Usage: "Zea Mays" is also a word in the following language with English translations in parentheses. Latin (Classical Indian medicine, Corn, corn bread, corn ok, corn snake, Corn, fresh, Huichol Shamanism (Huichol Indian Shamanism), indian corn, indian elephant, indian giver, Indian Pennywort, indian plantain, maize, Traditional Indian medicine). |
| Domain | Usage | |
Movie/TV Titles | Zea Mays (1962) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title |
Books | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
Expressions using "Zea mays": Zea mays amylacea ♦ Zea mays everta ♦ Zea mays indentata ♦ Zea mays indurata ♦ Zea mays rugosa. Additional references. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day |
zea mays | 17 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "a-a-e-m-s-y-z" | |
-1 letter: amazes, zymase. | |
-2 letters: amaze, mayas, mazes, seamy, smaze, zymes. | |
-3 letters: amas, asea, ayes, easy, eyas, maes, maya, mays, maze, mazy, mesa, same, seam, yams, yeas, zyme. | |
-4 letters: aas, ama, aye, ays, ems, mae, mas, may, sae, say, sea, yam, yea, yes. | |
-5 letters: aa, ae, am, as, ay, em, es, ma, me, my, ya, ye. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
Hexadecimal (or equivalents, 770AD-1900s) (references)5A 65 61 4D 61 79 73 |
| Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519; backwards) (references)
|
Binary Code (1918-1938, probably earlier) (references)01011010 01100101 01100001 00100000 01001101 01100001 01111001 01110011 |
HTML Code (1990) (references)Z e a   M a y s |
ISO 10646 (1991-1993) (references)005A 0065 0061 004D 0061 0079 0073 |
Encryption (beginner's substitution cypher): (references)607167247679185 |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Usage: Commercial 6. Expressions 7. Expressions: Internet 8. Anagrams | 9. Orthography 10. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
