hominy grits
1
8.6
- noun
- /ˈhɑːmɪni ɡrɪts/
- US
:
grits de hominy
- 0ne time, when I was 7 years old, my dad took me to a diner... for breakfast and he said “Hominy grits”... and I thought that he said “how many”... and I was supposed to count how many there were.
Examples
-
Watermelon, hominy grits and shortenin' bread
-
How do I know where you get hominy grits?
-
Now, for the entree... we'll have venison and hominy grits.
-
Hominy grits, shortenin' bread
-
In the South, breakfast often includes a side of hominy grits covered in butter.
-
She served hominy grits with shrimp and spices for a traditional meal.
-
At the diner, I ordered a plate of hominy grits to start my day.
Synonyms
2
8.7
Corn kernels with their outer layer removed and used in cooking, often for porridge or tortillas
A hot breakfast made from ground corn that is boiled
Small round pieces of corn made by grinding kernels, used for cooking
How Milled
Surface Forms
Morphology
Both constituents directly contribute to the meaning: 'hominy' denotes hulled corn and 'grits' denotes a boiled corn dish, so 'hominy grits' transparently means grits made from hominy. This is a straightforward noun–noun/type composition following common English compounding patterns (though regionally specific), so a learner who knows both words can derive the MWE meaning.
Etymology
Hominy grits comes from Native American cooking. They made corn into hominy by treating the kernels so the outer skin came off. They then ground it into a coarse meal called grits, so the name refers to 'coarsely ground, treated corn boiled as a breakfast porridge'.