millet |
| NOUN: |
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1a. An annual grass (Panicum milaiceum) cultivated in Eurasia for its grains and in North America for hay. b. The white grains of this plant. 2. Any of several similar or related grasses. |
| ETYMOLOGY: |
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Middle English milet, from Old French, diminutive of mil, millet, from Latin milium. See mel - in Appendix I. |
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| DEFINITION: |
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Also mel-. To crush, grind; with derivatives referring to various ground or crumbling substances (such as flour) and to instruments for grinding or crushing (such as millstones). Oldest form *mel2-.1. O-grade form *mol-. maelstrom, from Middle Dutch malen, to whirl, from Germanic *mal-. 2. Full-grade form *mel-. meal1, from Old English melu, flour, meal, from Germanic suffixed form *mel-wa-. 3. Zero-grade form *m -. mold3, molder, from Old English molde, soil, from Germanic suffixed form *mul-d . 4. Full-grade form *mel-. a. meunière, mill1, mola2, molar2, mole4, moulin; emolument, immolate, ormolu, from Latin molere, to grind (grain), and its derivative mola, a millstone, mill, coarse meal customarily sprinkled on sacrificial animals; b. possible suffixed form *mel-iyo-. mealie, miliary, milium, millet; gromwell, from Latin milium, millet. 5. Suffixed variant form *mal-ni-. malleable, malleolus, mallet, malleus, maul; pall-mall, from Latin malleus, hammer, mallet. 6. Zero-grade form *m-. amylum, mylonite, from Greek mul , mulos, millstone, mill. 7. Possibly extended form *ml -. blini, blintz, from Old Russian blin , pancake. (Pokorny 1. mel- 716.) |
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