millet

Meaning

Noun

• Any of a group of various types of grass or its grains used as food, widely cultivated in the developing world.
• A semi-autonomous confessional community under the Ottoman Empire, especially a non-Muslim one.

Related

Narrower meaning words

• Urochloa deflexa (species) (syn. Brachiaria deflexa (species); Guinea millet), Urochloa ramosa (species) (syn. Brachiaria ramosa (species); brown-top millet), Coix lacryma-jobi (Job's tears, adlay millet), Digitaria exilis, Echinochloa, Eleusine coracana, Eragrostis tef, Panicum miliaceum, Urochloa ramosa (species) (syn. Panicum ramosum (species)), Panicum sumatrense (species), Paspalum scrobiculatum (species), Pennisetum glaucum, Setaria italica, Sorghum

Origin

• From late Middle English, borrowed from Middle French millet; from Latin milium, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *melh₂- ("to grind, crush"), see also Ancient Greek μελίνη ("millet") and Lithuanian málnos ("millet").
• From Turkish millet, from Ottoman Turkish ملت, from Arabic مِلَّة.