[Vocabulary] Difference between "wheat stalk" and "grain ear"

Status
Not open for further replies.

Mallorca

New member
Joined
Apr 18, 2011
Member Type
Interested in Language
Native Language
Catalan
Home Country
Spain
Current Location
Spain
What's the difference between "wheat stalk", "grain ear" and "spike"?

Thank you in advance.
 
Last edited:

Rover_KE

Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Jun 20, 2010
Member Type
Retired English Teacher
Native Language
British English
Home Country
England
Current Location
England
Welcome to the board, Mallorca.

Not being a botanist or an agriculturalist I can only direct you to the dictionary definitions.

Google doesn't seem to like grain ear. That's an odd one. Where did you find it?

Rover
 

freezeframe

Key Member
Joined
Mar 28, 2011
Member Type
Academic
Native Language
English
Home Country
Canada
Current Location
Canada
What's the difference between "wheat stalk", "grain ear" and "spike"?

Thank you in advance.

I had to look up spike. The other two words are "normal" for me, including "grain ear".

Grain ear is the same as spike.

Stalk is technically the stem but you can also use stalk of wheat to mean one ... unit of (?) the plant. For example, if you're making some decorative arrangement with wheat.
 

Mallorca

New member
Joined
Apr 18, 2011
Member Type
Interested in Language
Native Language
Catalan
Home Country
Spain
Current Location
Spain
Thank you all.

I found the grain ear expression in the Coinproject.com web site, in Ancient Spain, mint of Ituci (I cannot publish the link here as I don't have 5 posts yet).

I'd say that it sounds more or less strange depending on where the speaker comes from. May be it's more usual for American speakers (US & Canadian) rather than for British.

The conclusion is that probably the best option is wheat stalk, which seems more universal.
 

Mallorca

New member
Joined
Apr 18, 2011
Member Type
Interested in Language
Native Language
Catalan
Home Country
Spain
Current Location
Spain
English is so confusing sometimes!
Spike is shown in the Spanish-English dictionary as the word I'm looking for, but it's not suitable for an American English speaker, who founds "wheat stalk" more suitable. But I find "grain ear" in a web page, which sounds strange to a British English speaker, but appears to be exactly as the word I'm looking for in the Wikipedia, where the word "spike" does not seem to include a reference to wheat.
Such a simple word seems to have a complicated use in English!
 

freezeframe

Key Member
Joined
Mar 28, 2011
Member Type
Academic
Native Language
English
Home Country
Canada
Current Location
Canada
English is so confusing sometimes!
Spike is shown in the Spanish-English dictionary as the word I'm looking for, but it's not suitable for an American English speaker, who founds "wheat stalk" more suitable. But I find "grain ear" in a web page, which sounds strange to a British English speaker, but appears to be exactly as the word I'm looking for in the Wikipedia, where the word "spike" does not seem to include a reference to wheat.
Such a simple word seems to have a complicated use in English!

Perhaps if you started by describing to us what you need to name with this word. Then we could provide helpful suggestions.

Trying to help you find a word for something, but we don't know for what exactly, is not a very fruitful exercise.
 

Mallorca

New member
Joined
Apr 18, 2011
Member Type
Interested in Language
Native Language
Catalan
Home Country
Spain
Current Location
Spain
Sorry if I have not been clear enough, but I referred to the top part of the wheat plant, where the grain is. Birdeen's call has published a link to Wikipedia for the word "Ear (botany)". This is exactly what I'm looking for (at least, what's depicted in the photo), but I'm not sure if the other two words (spike and wheat stalk) refers to the same concept.
Thanks.
 

freezeframe

Key Member
Joined
Mar 28, 2011
Member Type
Academic
Native Language
English
Home Country
Canada
Current Location
Canada
Sorry if I have not been clear enough, but I referred to the top part of the wheat plant, where the grain is. Birdeen's call has published a link to Wikipedia for the word "Ear (botany)". This is exactly what I'm looking for (at least, what's depicted in the photo), but I'm not sure if the other two words (spike and wheat stalk) refers to the same concept.
Thanks.

No, it doesn't. This was pointed out by me and by birdeen's call above. Stalk is the stem.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top