hominy

Meaning

Noun

• A food made from hulled corn (maize) kernels soaked in lye water, rinsed, then cooked and eaten; or, the rinsed kernels are dried and coarsely ground into hominy grits.

Origin

• First recorded in 1629. From Powhatan ("Virginia Algonquian"), though the exact source word is in question: suggestions include uskatahomen, appuminnéonash (“parched corn”), and rokohamin, the last yielding also the unclipped rockahominy.