IMPORTANCE AND HISTORY ig 



any other part of the world where maize is grown. 1 It is chap. 

 derived from the Portuguese word milho, from Latin Milium, ' 

 the name for millet, a grain at one time much used for food by 

 the inhabitants of Southern Europe. In Portuguese-speaking 

 countries, milho is the term for any cereal used for human 

 food. The name mielie was doubtless an early Africander- 

 Dutch corruption of the word milho, as used by the Portuguese 

 sailors who first left maize at the Cape on their way to the 

 East Indies ; it is significant that in Angola maize should have 

 been known under the name of ble portugais. We may, 

 therefore, look upon the word mielie as a colloquial form of 

 the word milho, meaning any kind of grain used for food, 

 rather than the name of the particular grain to which it has 

 been applied locally and in modern times. It would be 

 better to use the now universal word maiz or maize as the 

 connection with the English word meal is remote. The 

 forms in which the word milho are applied to maize are : milho 

 grande (Portugal, Brazil) ; milho d'India (Portugal) ; milho da 

 India, milho de Guine (Brazil) ; mielie and mealie (South 

 Africa). Moodie {Records, p. 137, 1841) spells the word 

 mily, and Damberger (Travels, p. 71, 1801) as melts. 



19. Other Vernacular Names. — In other countries where 

 millet was a staple cereal before the introduction of maize, the 

 local word for millet was often made use of in naming the new 

 cereal, thus: gros millet des Indes (France); durah-shami 

 (Arabic), dourah de Syrie (Egypt), dourah being the Arabic 

 name of millet; bari-joar (Panjab), bari-jowar (Oudh), Mak- 

 ka-jari (India), joar or juari being the general name in India 

 for the great millet (Sorghum vulgare) and Makkai = Mecca 

 (Watt), i.e. Mecca-joar or Mecca millet, indicating the route of 

 introduction ; jade sorgho (China) ; yuh-kau-liang (China), 

 kao-liang being a Chinese name for Sorghum vulgare ; 

 mashela bahry, i.e. millet from the sea (Abyssinia). 



On the other hand, where wheat was used more extensively, 

 the local word for wheat was adopted in coining a name for 

 the new cereal, thus we find : ble de Turquie or ble Turquet, 

 ble de l'lnde, ble des Incas, ble de Guine, ble dAfrique, ble 

 d'Astrakan (France) ; ble de Rome (Vosges), bit- de Barbarie 



1 The Dutch word for millet is giersl, for maize it is mays and mais, and for 

 Indian meal or corn meal, mais meel. 



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