teosinte

[tee-uh-sin-tee, tey-]

noun

1. a tall grass, Zea mexicana, of Mexico and Central America, closely related to corn, and sometimes cultivated as a fodder plant.

teosinte

/ ˌtiːəʊˈsɪntɪ /

noun

1. a tall Central American annual grass, Euchlaena mexicana, related to maize and grown for forage in the southern US

Word History and Origins

Origin of teosinte¹

1875–80; < Mexican Spanish < Nahuatl teōcintli, equivalent to teō ( tl ) god + cintli dried ear of maize

Word History and Origins

Origin of teosinte¹

C19: from Nahuatl teocentli, from teotl god + centli dry ear of corn

Example Sentences

Corn was born here about 9,000 years ago, when Mesoamerican farmers first started to domesticate the wild grass known as teosinte.

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And yet experts all agree that the genus teosinte is the ancestral form of all modern varieties of maize.

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Over the last eight years, the participating research groups have investigated around 9,000 varieties of maize and 170 varieties of teosinte around the world.

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The results showed how the root structure has radically changed during the domestication of teosinte to cultivated maize.

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"This is not the case with teosinte."

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