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Re: Maize origins [was re: "Corn" in medieval Europe]
On Wed, 12 Feb 1997 16:12:30 -0500, vincent deluca
<"Vincent1@ix.netcom"@ix.netcom.com> wrote:
> Maybe someone can help me in regards to Corn.
> The word for corn in Italian is "GranTurco"; this means, Turkish Corn.
>The Italians also use the word Maize.
> What the heck does Turkish Corn mean? My wife, who is Italian, refers
>to Corn as Granturco" and rarely uses the work Maize when she is
>speaking Italian.
Grano turco for "maize" fits in with the Catalan names for the cereal,
"blat de moro" (Moorish wheat), the usual term in Barcelona, Girona
and Lleida, "moresc" (Moorish [wheat]) in Tarragona, "blat de les
Indies" (wheat from the Indies) in Valencia and the Balears, "blat
d'India, blat-indi" (wheat from India) in Rossello. Compare "gall
d'India, gall dindi" for "turkey". And English "turkey" itself.
Before 1492, the term "(blat) moresc" seems to have been used to
denote a very different kind of cereal, probably buckwheat ("trigo
morisco" or "trigo sarraceno" in Castillian).
==
Miguel Carrasquer Vidal ~ ~
Amsterdam _____________ ~ ~
mcv@pi.net |_____________|||
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