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First came across this written in Kana

# Midori

> とうもろこし, トウモロコシ【玉蜀黍】
>
> corn (US), maize (UK) (usually written in kana)

Why Kana?

Is トウモロコシ borrowed from another language?

What is the etymology of トウモロコシ?
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etymology spelling
トウモロコシ: Why kana? What is the etymology?
No, it isn't borrowed. The etymology of the word comes from モロコシ, which was
introduced to Japan earlier from China.

When maize was introduced to Japan by the Portuguese, it was noticed that it
looked similar to sorghum (モロコシ, 蜀黍, 唐黍). The prefix とう was added to indicate
it was the _foreign_ good type instead of the (also foreign, but earlier)
sorghium.

モロコシ as mentioned comes from 唐黍. The kanji 唐 or 唐土 in kana was もろこし, c.f. 唐土人
(meaning Chinese) もろこしびと. 黍 is of course, きび. Overtime, 唐黍/もろこしきび became just
もろこし. So the maize, with the とう prefix, became とうもろこし(きび).

Since it is based on Chinese, there's also kanji for that word; 玉蜀黍. At first
the second 唐 was replaced 蜀 to avoid a silly looking name like 唐唐黍. Then the 唐
prefix was also switched out for 玉, because of its green (outer) colour.

But like most fruits and vegetables, it is generally written in kana today
anyway.
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Adding on to Semaphore's answer.

## Etymology

The word トウモロコシ is a compound of _tō_ + _morokoshi_. The _morokoshi_ part is
older, so let's look at that first.

### Etymology of the _morokoshi_ part

Shogakukan's _Kokugo Dai Jiten Dictionary_ states that _morokoshi_ is the
_kun'yomi_ of the word 諸越 ( _on'yomi_ of _shoetsu_ ). This term came out of
Chinese, and originally meant something like "all those Yue", a synonym for 百越
or "[the Hundred Yue](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hundred_Yue)", an ethnic
group in the south of China that formed the [state of
Yue](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yue_%28state%29) during the [Spring and
Autumn period](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spring_and_Autumn_Period) in
Chinese history.

When this term was first imported into Japanese, there was relatively active
trade with the Yue region, roughly corresponding to modern [Zhejiang
province](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhejiang). Over time, Yue became
commercially less important to Japan, and so the Japanese term came to refer
not just to Yue, but to China as a whole. As the [Tang
Dynasty](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tang_dynasty) became the main power in
China, the older _kun'yomi_ of _morokoshi_ was applied to the new kanji 唐 that
referred to the Tang, and to the compound word 唐土 that referred to the land of
the Tang.

_Morokoshi_ (now spelled 唐) was used as a label or prefix for all kinds of
things that were brought over to Japan from China. 唐黍 ( _morokoshi kibi_ ) or
"Chinese millet", i.e. sorghum, was one of those things. The Chinese word for
sorghum was 蜀黍 ( _on'yomi_ of _shokusho_ , literally "Shu millet", referring
to various states of Shu in southwestern China in the area of modern [Sichuan
province](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sichuan)), and the _kun'yomi_ of
_morokoshi kibi_ was also applied to this word. The term _morokoshi kibi_ was
eventually shortened just to _morokoshi_ , but the kanji spelling was kept as
either 唐黍 or 蜀黍 when used in reference to sorghum.

### Etymology of the _tō_ part

Maize was introduced to Japan in 1572. By that time, the term _morokoshi_ was
more strongly associated with sorghum than with China, and the word 唐 (with
the _on'yomi_ of _tō_ ) had replaced _morokoshi_ as the all-around prefix
referring to China and Chinese goods. As Semaphore notes, this meaning was
extended to refer to anything foreign that was imported from abroad.

## Appearance

[Sorghum](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sorghum_bicolor) and
[maize](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maize) really do look quite similar in
some ways. The image on the left (or top if on a phone) is sorghum with seed
developing. Note the leaves and stalks look a lot like maize, shown on the
right (or bottom).

![Sorghum stalks and
leaves](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/9f/Turpan_Millet.jpg/160px-
Turpan_Millet.jpg) ![Maize stalks and
leaves](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/75/Cornsilk_7091.jpg/175px-
Cornsilk_7091.jpg)

This similarity is probably what prompted Japanese folks seeing maize for the
first time to think, "hey, that looks kinda like that other plant,
_morokoshi_."

## Putting it together

As such, when Japanese folks saw maize, they saw something that looked like
sorghum, and that came from abroad, so they called it "foreign sorghum" --
i.e., 唐 ( _tō_ ) 唐黍 or 蜀黍 ( _morokoshi_ ). The change in kanji, and the shift
to kana spelling, are just as Semaphore explains.
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