תִּירָס m.n. maize, corn. [In the Bible תִּירָס is the name of one of the sons of Japhet. Far and forced is the way in which this proper name came to denote ‘maize’, or ‘corn’. The Talmud renders תִּירָס by בית תרייקי. In the period of the Haskalah (1750–1880) it became customary to identify תרייקי — merely because of the similarity in sound between תרייקי and תּוּרְקְיָה — with Turkey. Furthermore, since maize is called in many languages ‘Turkish wheat’ (cp. e.g. Ger. türkischer Weizen — whence Yiddish Terkische weiz — It. granturco, Hungarian törökbúza, etc.), תִּירָס was and is still used to denote the maize in Hebrew. The identification of תִּירָס with maize on the basis of the above reasoning cannot be accepted. Before all בית תרייקי (see supra) cannot be identical with Turkey, because the Babylonian Talmud was concluded about the end of the fifth century and the Talmud Yerushalmi, in which תִּירָס is rendered by תרֹקא, was concluded even earlier, whereas the Turks appear in history for the first time in the thirteenth century. Furthermore, the Biblical name generally used for Turkey is תּוֹגַרְמָה (the modern name is טוּרְקְיָה). In consideration of all this I suggest to call the maize in Hebrew either חִטַּת־טוּרְקְיָה or חִטַּת־תּוֹגַרְמָה, i.e. ‘Turkish wheat’, which are a simple loan translation of Ger. türkischer Weizen, etc.]