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Glite Dictionary
✂️ To remove tassels ✂️ Removing tassels 👩‍🌾 A corn worker
detassel

detassel

9.1
A person who removes the tops of corn plants so they do not make pollen
  • noun
  • Specialized
: desmochador
  • Many teenagers take jobs as a detassel to earn extra money during school break.

Examples

  • The farm hired a new detassel to help with the hybrid corn production.

  • A detassel must be careful not to damage the plants.

  • During the summer, she worked as a detassel in the cornfields near her hometown.

  • The detassel worked hard under the sun.

  • During the summer, she worked as a detassel in the cornfields near her hometown.

  • Many teenagers take jobs as a detassel to earn extra money during school break.

  • The farm hired a new detassel to help with the hybrid corn production.

Surface Forms

detassel singular
detassels plural

Morphology

detassel = detassel (semi-transparent) = de + tassel

The form is transparent as de- + tassel, but the noun meaning 'a person who does the work' is a specialized agentive conversion from the verb.

Etymology

Detassel comes from de- meaning 'remove' and tassel, the 'top part of a corn plant that looks like a small bunch of threads'. So a detassel is literally a person who removes those tassels, often as a seasonal worker.