field pea
- noun
- /fiːld piː/
- Southern field peas are often used in traditional dishes, providing a rich source of protein.
- field peas and beans
- shelling field peas
- field peas and greens
Examples
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Boys, I got some field peas and rice cooking.
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And field peas for your Aunt Corene.
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Shelling field peas, which had ripened in the garden under my mother-in-law's diligent care, I made them ready for side dishes.
Fiction book (2002) -
Also known as field peas, cow peas, crowders, and purple hulls, this vegetable loves heat and fills in beautifully between the early summer and fall crops.
Blog text (22) -
We followed him to the gallery, where a plump, white-haired old lady in a clean gingham sunbonnet and dress and a clean white apron sat in a low rocking chair, shelling field peas into a wooden bowl.
Fiction book (1993) -
Last summer, I harvested a large batch of field peas from my garden for a fresh salad.
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My grandmother taught me how to cook field peas with rice, a favorite meal in our family.
Synonyms
A low leafy crop that people grow for edible seeds and food for animals
A plant grown in cool areas to feed animals and improve soil
A pea plant grown for animal feed and to make soil better
A pea plant grown for animal feed, often used to feed cows and sheep
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly compositional: 'field' (a plot of land) + 'pea' (a small edible seed) yields a pea associated with or grown in a field. This noun–noun compounding is productive and cross-linguistically common, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents can infer the referent (even if it's a specific cultivar).
Etymology
The name field pea comes from the simple image of a pea plant grown in an open field rather than a garden. Farmers grew and dried these peas to sell as food, so today field pea means the small, edible pea used as 'food for people or farm animals'.