How corny

Today's Spanish word of the day was choclo, meaning sweet corn, coming from the Quechua version, choccllo or chocclo. Maize, a more commonly used word in English, comes from maiz, a Taino word. This little blurb on language reminded me of a passage in The Omnivore's Dilemma in which Pollan writes about the use and waste of corn in America's Corn Belt, and the feelings of an academic from Latin America who was appalled to see the disrespect and waste. There was a note, also, about the number of words used to mean or describe corn in Latin American Spanish, many of which were rooted in indigenous languages. Which makes sense since corn was (and is still?) a staple food. Rather like the many different words for tuna in Japanese.

Off to learn more.