Barley

Barley (hordeum vulgare) is a one the oldest documented cultivated cereal. It could have been cultivated for 9.000 years or more.

Barley today is used as humane and animal food but also to prepare beer.

Vocabulary

• English: barely.

• • Mnemotechnics barely sounds is close to beer. The two words are actually related.
  • Not to be confused with barely
• German (die Gerste) is similar to Dutch (gerst)

• French (orge), Catalan (ordi (masculine)) and Italian are related (orzo). Not surprising since in Latin it is hordeum (classic Latin) and ordeum (Ecclesiatic Latin)
• Spanish (cebada), Portuguese (cevada), Galician (cebada) are all related to Latin word meaning food

• Chinese (大麦, dàmài) and Japanese (大麦, おおむぎ) have same origin. Mnemotechnics. 麦 is used to form words for several cereal such as wheat (小麦, xiǎomài) and rye (黑麦, hēi mài). If you know French and English word ogre and the translation of barley in French, then it easier to remember why in Chinese it is the big cereal.

See also:

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barley
• https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/barley