Rice is the small white grains that half the world eats every day. Boiled, steamed, or fried with whatever is left over.
It is a grass, grown in flooded paddy fields, and it feeds more people than any other single crop. English treats it as a mass noun, so you cook rice rather than rices. The varieties come with their own names — basmati, jasmine, arborio, long grain — and each suits a different dish. Rice paper, rice wine and rice pudding all take the name, and throwing rice at weddings is an old wish for fertility.
1nounriceThe edible white or brown grains of a cereal grown in flooded fields.
“Put the rice on before you start the sauce.”
Medieval Greek
ὄρυζα
roa-oit
riso
Old French
ris
Middle English
rys
English, today
rice
From Middle English rys, from Old French ris, from roa-oit riso, risi, from Medieval Greek ὄρυζα, from an Eastern ira - language related to pal blnc, kmr riz (beyond Euphrates) and zza riz. Theorized to have come to Iranian languages from Sanskrit व्रीहि. Prior to Sanskrit, it is speculated to be possibly a borrowing from a dra language (compare dra-pro wariñci (“rice”)), or from aav languages further east. Alternatively Medieval Greek ὄρυζα is said to be from Hebrew אורז, from South Arabian areez ultimately from oty 𑀅𑀭𑀺𑀘𑀺.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA