Rice
Pronunciation
- IPA: /ɹaɪs/
- Rhymes: -aɪs
Origin
Middle English rys, from Old French ris, from Old Italian riso, risi, from Byzantine Greek ὄÏυζα, ὄÏυζον. This is usually held to be a borrowing from Old Iranian (cf. Old Persian , Pashto , Kurdish birinc), in turn probably borrowed from Sanskrit वà¥à¤°à¥€à¤¹à¤¿. The Sanskrit term is either a loan from Dravidian – compare Proto-Dravidian *wariñci ("rice") – or, according to Michael Witzel, borrowed from an unknown South Asian, possibly Austroasiatic, source, with the Dravidian word being an independent borrowing of another variant.
Witzel 1999, p. 27
Old Tamil அரிசி, from earlier *ariki, is not the source of the Greek word, however, according to Bhadriraju Krishnamurti (2003) apud Witzel (2009).
Witzel 2009, p. 25
In contrast, Witzel (1999) had maintained, following Southworth (1979), that the Greek term goes back to Old Tamil arici – itself from an older form *ariki, an early (ca. 1500 BC) borrowing from Munda according to Southworth (1988).
Witzel 1999, p. 26
Full definition of rice
Noun
rice
(plural rices)- (uncountable) Cereal plants, Oryza sativa of the grass family whose seeds are used as food.
- A specific variety of this plant.
- (uncountable) The seeds of this plant used as food.
Verb
- To squeeze through a ricer; to mash or make into rice-sized pieces.
- To throw rice at a person (usually at a wedding).
- To belittle a government emissary or similar on behalf of a more powerful militaristic state.
- To harvest wild rice Zinzania sp.