millet

/mil"it/, n.

1. a cereal grass, Setaria italica, extensively cultivated in the East and in southern Europe for its small seed, or grain, used as food for humans and fowls, but in the U.S. grown chiefly for fodder.

2. any of various related or similar grasses cultivated as grain plants or forage plants.

3. the grain of any of these grasses.

[1375-1425; late ME milet < MF, equiv. to mil ( < L milium millet) + -et -ET]

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I

Any of various grasses (family Poaceae, or Gramineae), that produce small edible seeds used as forage crops and as food cereals.

Most millets range in height from 1 to 4 ft (0.3 to 1.3 m). Except for pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum, or P. americanum), seeds remain enclosed in hulls after threshing. Cultivated in China since at least the 3rd millennium BC, millets are today an important food staple in much of Asia, Russia, and western Africa. High in carbohydrates, they are somewhat strong in taste and cannot be made into leavened bread, so they are consumed mainly in flatbreads and porridges or prepared and eaten much like rice. In the U.S. and western Europe they are used chiefly for pasture or to produce hay.

II

Turkish term referring to an autonomous religious community under the Ottoman Empire (с 1300–1923).

Each millet was responsible to the central government for obligations such as taxes and internal security and also had responsibility for social and administrative functions not provided by the state. Beginning in 1856, a series of secular legal reforms known as the Tanzimat ("Reorganization") eroded much of their administrative autonomy.

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▪ plant

 any of various grasses, members of the Gramineae (Poaceae) family, producing small edible seeds used as forage crops and as food cereals. Millets, probably first cultivated in Asia or Africa more than 4,000 years ago, range in height from 1 to 4 feet (0.3 to 1.3 m), with the exception of pearl millet, which has stalks 5 to 10 feet (1.5 to 3 m) tall and about 1 inch (2.54 cm) thick. The heads may be spikes or racemes, in which the flowers are borne on stalks of about equal length along an elongated axis, or panicles, clusters of small florets. With the exception of pearl millet, seeds remain enclosed in hulls after threshing. Hulled seeds are usually creamy white.

      Millets are an important food staple in much of Asia, Russia, and western Africa. In the United States and western Europe they are used chiefly for pasture or to produce hay, although they were major grains in Europe during the Middle Ages. Pearl millet, or cattail millet, called bajra in India (species Pennisetum americanum), is suited to soils of low fertility and limited moisture and is a popular food crop in India and Africa. Proso—the common, or broomcorn, millet (Panicum miliaceum)—ripening within 60–80 days after sowing, is used in birdseed and chick-feed mixtures and as livestock feed in the United States and as a food in Asia and eastern Europe. Foxtail varieties (Setaria [Chaetochloa] italica) having small pointed seeds are grown for hay in North America and western Europe but are important as foods in China and other Asian countries. Finger millet, or koracan millet, also called raggee (Eleusine coracana), is an important food grain in southern Asia and parts of Africa. Japanese millet (Echinochloa crus-galli variety frumentacea) is grown chiefly in Japan and the United States as a hay crop. Little millet (Panicum miliare) is chiefly a food crop of India. Browntop (Panicum ramosum) is grown in the southeastern United States for hay, pasture, and game-bird feed.

      The millets are high in carbohydrates, with protein content varying from 6 to 11 percent and fat varying from 1.5 to 5 percent. They are somewhat strong in taste and cannot be made into leavened bread. Instead, they are mainly consumed in flatbreads and porridges or prepared and eaten much like rice. About 30,000,000 metric tons of millet are produced annually, chiefly in India, China, Nigeria, and Russia.

▪ religious group

      (Turkish: “religious community,” or “people”), according to the Qurʾān, the religion professed by Abraham and other ancient prophets. In medieval Islāmic states, the word was applied to certain non-Muslim minorities, mainly Christians and Jews. In the heterogeneous Ottoman Empire (c. 1300–1923), a millet was an autonomous self-governing religious community, each organized under its own laws and headed by a religious leader, who was responsible to the central government for the fulfillment of millet responsibilities and duties, particularly those of paying taxes and maintaining internal security. In addition, each millet assumed responsibility for social and administrative functions not provided by the state, conducting affairs through a communal council (meclisimillî) without intervention from outside. From 1856 on, a series of imperial reform edicts introduced secular law codes for all citizens, and much of the millets' administrative autonomy was lost.

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