Corn Belt
1
3.1
- noun
- /kɔrn bɛlt/
- US
:
Cinturón de maíz
- During harvest season, the Corn Belt sees a significant influx of workers to help gather the corn.
Examples
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In recent decades, irrigation has allowed the traditional Corn Belt to move westward onto drier lands.
Blog text (12) -
Farmers in the Corn Belt rely on rich soil and favorable weather to grow their crops.
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So places like the US Corn Belt, Brazil, Eastern China for parts of it.
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Soil moisture readings in the Corn Belt are now among the lowest ever recorded.
Blog text (9) -
Across the Corn Belt, cool but dry weather is promoting harvest activities, especially across the upper Midwest.
Blog text (27) -
For the past several weeks, the Corn Belt has been blanketed with dehydrating heat.
Blog text (9) -
Across the Corn Belt, mild air is overspreading westernmost areas, including the middle Missouri Valley.
Blog text (19) -
According to the Office of Technology Assessment, impairment of surface water is particularly significant in the Corn Belt, where fertilizer and pesticide residues and sediment are concentrated in many streams, rivers, and lakes.
Academic text (1998) -
More immediately, the scope for targeting hot spots where problems overlap is tremendous; the report cites the Corn Belt, the Atlantic estuaries, the lower Mississippi Valley, and the Great Plains as areas where the environmental impact of modern agriculture demands prompt attention.
Academic text (1996) -
The Corn Belt is renowned for producing the highest yields of corn in the United States.
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'an area where corn is predominant' is directly derivable from combining 'corn' with 'belt' understood as a 'band' or geographic strip. The pattern is a productive English compounding (e.g. 'Rust Belt', 'Bible Belt'), so a B1 learner who knows both constituents will very likely infer the intended regional meaning.
Etymology
Corn Belt comes from the image of a wide belt of corn that stretches across the middle of the United States. Picture a long belt made of cornfields crossing several states; that's why it means 'an area where corn is the main crop'.