millet

millet¹ cereal grass

Etymology

The word for the cereal grass is inherited from Middle English milet,^[2][3][4] borrowed from Middle French millet,^[5][3][6][7] a diminutive of mil (“millet”), a dialect word in French,^[5][8][7] formed with the suffix -et.^[5][3][9] The Old French word is recorded from about 1256,^[5] and the Anglo-Norman millet, a kind of grain, from about 1300.^[10] The French mil is from Latin milium (“millet”),^{[5][11][12][13]} which Klein explains as standing for Latin *meliyom and which is cognate with Ancient Greek μελίνη (melínē, “millet”) and Lithuanian málnos (“millet”) (plural).^[9][11][7] Etymonline and the American Heritage Dictionary trace it to the Indo-European root Proto-Indo-European *mele- (“to crush, grind”),^[11][12] and Merriam-Webster Unabridged takes it as probably related to Old English melu, the source of meal.^[3] English had an earlier word for the grain from Old English mīl (“millet”),^[14][6] itself from the Latin word, which survived as Middle English myle, recorded before 1382.^[6][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The grain of the millet plant, millet seed: in the Egerton manuscript of Mandeville's Travels, perhaps before 1425, which says that in one country there was little wheat or barley, so people ate millet and rice.^[5][2] Etymonline dates the word to the early 15th century,^[11] and Barnhart's Concise to probably before 1425.^[6]

Semantic evolution

The plant itself, the grass Panicum miliaceum, is named from 1577, in Googe's translation of Heresbach's book on husbandry.^[5][15] From 1548, in William Turner's Names of Herbes, the word was used, usually with a qualifying word, for other small-seeded cereal grasses grown in warm countries.^[5][15] The OED compares such names as black millet, Turkish millet and Indian millet with French names recorded from 1562 on, such as millet de Turquie.^[5] The word also had short-lived senses: a skin disease of horses' fetlocks (about 1523 to 1607), a snake mentioned by ancient writers (1608–1661) and, in an 1842 medical book, thrush of the mouth.^[5][15] Johnson (1755) described millet as a plant with a loose, divided panicle and oval, shining seeds.^[16] On the Isle of Wight, according to the English Dialect Dictionary, millet was the name of the wood club-rush.^[17]

Timeline

• c. 1425 – the grain of millet, millet seed.^[5][2]
• c. 1523 – in the plural, a skin disease of horses (obsolete by 1607).^[5]
• 1548 – with a qualifying word, any of various other small-seeded cereal grasses.^[5][15]
• 1577 – the cereal grass Panicum miliaceum.^[5][15]
• 1608 – a snake mentioned in antiquity (obsolete by 1661).^[5][15]

Meanings

Noun

1. Any of several small-seeded cereal and forage grasses, especially Panicum miliaceum, grown for grain and fodder.^[18][3][5]
2. The small round seed of such a grass, used as food and as bird seed: She bought a sack of millet for the chickens.^[18][5]
3. Any of various similar or related grasses, named with a qualifying word, such as pearl millet and foxtail millet.^[18][5]

Word family

• pearl millet
• foxtail millet
• finger millet
• Indian millet
• Japanese millet
• African millet

millet² Ottoman religious community

Etymology

The word for the Ottoman religious community is borrowed from Turkish millet (“nation, people, body of co-religionists”),^[5][3][19] from Arabic ملّة (milla, “religion, religious community”).^{[5][3][12][20]} The American Heritage Dictionary traces the Arabic word to a Syriac word meaning word, creed,^[12] and Nişanyan to an Aramaic word for language, from a root meaning to speak.^[20] In Turkish the word is recorded before 1300 for religion, sect, or a community belonging to one religion.^[20] Nişanyan suggests that it first meant those who spoke the same language, but that the religious sense prevailed and lasted in Turkish until the end of the 19th century.^[20] The modern Turkish sense "nation", a counterpart of French nation, developed in Turkish and passed from it into modern Arabic.^[20]

Earliest recorded meaning

In the Ottoman Empire, a part of the population defined by its religion or ethnic group, with some self-government under its own leaders: 1900, in Turkey in Europe by "Odysseus".^[5][15] The Shorter Oxford dates it to the early 20th century.^[19]

Semantic evolution

Merriam-Webster Unabridged defines it as a non-Muslim community of the Ottoman Empire organized under its own religious head, who also had important civil functions.^[3] The Shorter Oxford labels the word historical, for a part of the population that owed allegiance to a particular religious leader, especially a non-Muslim one.^[19]

Timeline

• 1900 – in the Ottoman Empire, a religious or ethnic community with some self-government.^[5][15]

Meanings

Noun

1. (historical) In the Ottoman Empire, a religious community, especially a non-Muslim one, organized under its own religious leader, who also had civil authority over it.^[3][19][5]