cereal
adjEtymology Borrowed from French céréale (“having to do with cereal”), from Latin Cerealis (“of or relating to Ceres”), from Ceres (“Roman goddess of agriculture”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱer- (“grow”), from which also Latin sincerus (English sincere) and Latin crēscō (“grow”) (English crescent). The adjective is equivalent to Cere(s) + -al.
1
Of or relating to cereal.
- Wheat .. is, of all the cereal seeds, the best adapted to the making of bread.1818, H[enry] T[homas] Colebrooke, On Import of Colonial Corn, London: J[ohn] Murray, →OCLC, page 20; quoted in “Cereal (sīᵊ·riˌăl), a. and sb.”, in James A[ugustus] H[enry] Murray [et al.], editors, A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles (Oxford English Dictionary), volume II (C), London: Clarendon Press, 1884–1928, →OCLC, page 230, column 1:
- Millet, the smallest of all the cereal seeds cultivated for food, grows on arid soils, where rice and maize cannot be successfully cultivated, […]1837, Henry Duncan, “Eleventh Week—Wednesday. The Corn-Plants.—Rice, Maize, and Millet.”, in Sacred Philosophy of the Seasons; Illustrating the Perfections of God in the Phenomena of the Year, [volume 1] (Spring), Edinburgh: William Oliphant and Son; […], →OCLC, page 333:
2 more examples
- The river flows on, washing the base of the sandstone fossiliferous bank at Preston-bridge,—lightening up the rich valley of Preston-haugh,—lending beauty to the open demesnes of Broomhouse, and to the sylvan and cereal grounds of Blanerne; […]1853, George Johnston, “The Natural History of the Eastern Borders”, in The Botany of the Eastern Borders, […], London: John Van Voorst, […], →OCLC, page 19:
- The species printed in small capitals are Corn-producing or Cereal Grasses, called Cereals, from Ceres, the Roman goddess of Corn.1864, Daniel Oliver, “Natural Order—Gramineæ. The Grass Family.”, in Lessons in Elementary Botany. […], London; Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Macmillan and Co., →OCLC, part II (Classification of Plants), class II (Monocotyledons), sub-class Glumiferæ, page 267: