Terminology: Is maize corn?

Yes. The term “maize” is derived from the ancient word mahiz from the Taino language — a now extinct Arawakan language — of the indigenous people of pre-Columbian America. Columbus and other explorers took maize back to Europe with them and it spread across the trade routes of Europe, Africa and Asia in the 1500s and 1600s. When Europeans were introduced to maize, they called it “corn,” which was then a general term for any grain but has since come to refer specifically to maize in the U.S. Today the terms maize and corn are often used interchangeably, with one being used more commonly than the other in certain regions or contexts, though in some European countries “corn” may also refer to wheat or barley.

• “Taino language.” Encyclopædia Britannica. 2010. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 25 Jun. 2010.
• Graham Brookes and Peter Barfoot. 2006. GM Crops: The First Ten Years — Global Socio-Economic and Environmental Impacts. International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-Biotech Applications, Brief no. 36.