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Glite Dictionary
🌽 Corn disease 🍄 Edible fungus
cornsmut

cornsmut

8.7
A fungus people eat in Mexican cooking that grows as dark lumps on corn
  • noun
  • /ˈkɔrnˌsmʌt/
  • US
translation icon : huitlacoche
  • Traditional Mexican recipes often include cornsmut as a prized ingredient during autumn harvests.

Examples

  • At the market she bought fresh cornsmut to add an earthy flavour to her soup.

  • The chef prepared tacos filled with cornsmut and sautéed mushrooms for the festival.

  • I tried cornsmut for the first time last week.

  • Have you ever tasted cornsmut?

  • The chef prepared tacos filled with cornsmut and sautéed mushrooms for the festival.

  • At the market she bought fresh cornsmut to add an earthy flavour to her soup.

  • Traditional Mexican recipes often include cornsmut as a prized ingredient during autumn harvests.

Synonyms

Ustilago maydis
vscornsmut
  • Specialized
9.9

A fungus that infects corn, making greyish-white swellings that burst to show black powder

is the prepared edible stage eaten as a delicacy
corn smut
vscornsmut
  • Specialized
9.3

A disease caused by a fungus that makes big grey growths on corn ears

is the edible form of that fungus rather than the disease symptom

Surface Forms

cornsmut singular
cornsmuts plural

Morphology

cornsmut = corn + smut (transparent) = corn + smut

The edible product name is the same compound 'corn' + 'smut' referring to the fungus found on corn; learners can infer it as the fungus associated with corn.

Etymology

The word cornsmut is made of corn 'maize' and smut 'a black or dirty spot' used for plant fungi. In Mexico this same fungus is a food called 'huitlacoche', so cornsmut can also mean the edible fungus on corn.