edible corn
- noun
- /ˈɛdɪbəl kɔrn/
- I bought some fresh edible corn from the farmer's market for dinner.
Examples
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For a healthy snack, we grilled some edible corn and added butter and salt.
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The chef used edible corn as a key ingredient in her delicious soup.
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My suggestion was to replace the non-edible ethanol corn with edible corn, wheat, soybeans, or whatever the farmer was growing before he started growing ethanol corn.
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Synonyms
A tall plant with large yellow seeds used for food
A tall plant that produces small yellow seeds used for food and animal feed
How Edible
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase 'edible corn' is fully compositional: 'edible' (suitable to be eaten) modifies 'corn' (maize), so the combined meaning 'corn suitable for human consumption' is directly derivable from the constituents. This is a common adjectival + noun pattern found across languages and will be immediately clear to a B1 learner who knows both words.
Etymology
The phrase edible corn comes from farmers and market sellers who needed to show which corn people could eat and which was only for animal feed. Putting edible before corn made a clear picture, so edible corn today simply means 'corn suitable for human consumption'.