mealie
/ˈmiːli
/(also mielie)
noun (usually mealies) South African
1A maize plant: the mealies were as tall as my stretched arms...
- The trekkers also planted maize (which they called mielie, whence the African term ‘mealies') wherever they settled, and this soon came into cultivation by the Africans.
1.1 [mass noun] Maize kernels; sweetcorn: [as modifier]: mealie pudding...
- One of my earliest memories is of sitting at our kitchen table, talking to Gladys, my Zulu nanny, while a pot of mielie pap porridge bubbled on the stove.
- Its meander begins at the railway siding and extends down the bleak R545 road to Bethal, passing between open-cast coal pits and dried-up mealie fields.
1.2A corncob: they arrive each day to sell mealies...
- The farmer was selling mielies on his farm near the Blinkfontein road when four men in a black VW Golf with tinted windows robbed him of his cellphone and cash, then shot him.
- Some sell mielies roasted in coal umbhawulas to locals, while others play soccer to pass the time.
Origin
Early 19th century: from Afrikaans mielie, from Portuguese milho 'maize, millet' from Latin milium.