maíz

Forms

maíz m (plural maíces)^[1] Las Casas and Fernández de Oviedo wrote mahiz, and Herrera mayz; the spelling without ⟨h⟩ soon prevailed.^[2][3] Asturian has maizu, and maizo is found in local documents of the 17th century, under the influence of panizo.^[2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Taíno mahís, the name the Taíno of Hispaniola gave the plant.^[2][4][5] Las Casas states plainly that it is a word of Hispaniola.^[2] Wiktionary reconstructs the Taíno form as *mahisi.^[1] The stress fell on the ⟨i⟩, as Las Casas says and the verse of Juan de Castellanos confirms; the popular stress on the ⟨a⟩, and forms without the final consonant, heard in many parts of the Americas but not in Spain, come from a later sound change.^[2]

From Spanish the word spread to French maïs, Italian mais, German Mais and English maize.^[1][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Peter Martyr names the plant in Latin as early as 1493.^[2] In Spanish, a letter of Columbus to the Catholic Monarchs dated 1495 already calls mahíz a most precious food with an ear and grains as big as beans, and his account of the third voyage (1498) describes it as a seed that makes an ear like a maçorca.^[7] Corominas's first record is the diary of Columbus, in 1500.^[2][4]

Semantic evolution

The word passed from the Antilles to the mainland with the Spaniards: it is recorded in Puerto Rico and Tierra Firme in 1513, and Fernández de Enciso's Suma de geografía (1519) tells how the Indians make bread and a drink from maize flour.^[8][9] By the 18th and 19th centuries the Academy described it as a European crop too.^[10][11]

In the Americas it has many local names and phrases: in Cuba and Puerto Rico comer maíz is “to take a bribe”.^[12] English took maize in the 1550s from the Spanish of Cuba.^[6]

Timeline

• 1493 – Peter Martyr mentions the plant in Latin.^[2]
• 1495 – a letter of Columbus calls mahíz a precious food.^[7]
• 1498 – Columbus's account of the third voyage compares its ear to a maçorca.^[7]
• 1500 – Corominas's first record, the diary of Columbus.^[2][4]
• 1513 – the first records in Puerto Rico and Tierra Firme.^[8]
• 1519 – Fernández de Enciso describes maize bread and maize drink.^[9]
• 1535–1550 – maizal “maize field” appears in Fernández de Oviedo.^[2]
• 1550s – English borrows the word as maize.^[6]
• 1899 – the Academy derives it from Haitian mahís.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. maize, corn: a tall grass (gramínea) native to tropical America, with long flat leaves, that bears large ears (mazorcas) of thick yellow grains.^[5][1]
2. The grain of this plant: tortillas de maíz.^[5][13]

Word family

• maizal
• maicena
• maicero

Related words

• mazorca
• panizo

Usage notes

Maíz morocho is a variety with a large, hard grain in Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Uruguay.^[5] In Cuba and other parts of the Americas the word is often said maís or with the stress on the a.^[14][2]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 772
3. ^ Malaret, Augusto (1999), Vocabulario de Puerto Rico, critical ed. by Humberto López Morales, Madrid: Arco/Libros (1st ed. 1937), p. 239
4. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. maíz
5. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. maíz
6. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com, p. s.v. maize
7. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. maíz
8. ^ a b Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, p. s.v. maíz
9. ^ a b Grupo IATEXT, Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, AMERLEX: corpus of americanisms in early texts on the Americas (online database), p. s.v. maíz
10. ^ Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 451
11. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 621
12. ^ Malaret, Augusto (1946), Diccionario de americanismos, 3rd ed., Buenos Aires: Emecé, p. 525
13. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. maíz
14. ^ Suárez, Constantino (1921), Vocabulario cubano, La Habana: Librería Cervantes / Madrid: Perlado, Páez y Compañía, p. 336