(W.Ind. maiz.) Indian corn. The name of the great staple of native American agriculture, adopted from the Carib language by the Spaniards, and thus imported into the languages of Europe. The earliest dictionary in which I find the word, is Florio's Worlde of Wordes (1598); the article there is Maiz, a kind of grain or wheat whereof they make bread in India." Its native country is not fully determined, although it is believed to be America. Bernal Diaz speaks of it in Mexico in 1517; and Acosta in 1570, when treating of the plants "peculiar to the Indies," says that "the most common grain found in the new world is mays, which is found in all the kingdoms of he West Indies, Peru, New Spain, Guatemala, and Chili." He adds, that in Castile they call it Indian wheat; and in Italy, Turkey grain; which seems to imply that the plant was also known in those countries.