One word I learnt recently in Swahili is wali, which means rice, or more specifically, cooked rice.
Wali (cooked rice)
Wali means cooked rice or cooked grain in Swahili. Other words for rice include mpunga (rice plant, raw unhusked rice), mchele (dehusked, uncooked rice), ubwabwa (ground rice), and mashendea (husked rice) [source].
mpunga (rice plant, raw unhusked rice)
Wali comes from Malagasy vary (uncooked rice), from Proto-Malayic *bəras (rice) amd Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *pajay (rice plant) [source].
Words from the same Proto-Malayic root include beras (uncooked rice, any grain) in Malay and Indonesian, and berau (raw rice) in Iban [source].
Words from the same Proto-Malayo-Polynesian root include palay (rice plant) in Tagalog, fary (sugar cane) in Malagasy, hare ([uncooked] rice, rice plant) in Tetum and padi (rice plant, paddy, unhusked grain) in Malay and Indonesian [source].
The English word paddy also comes from the same roots via Malay. As well as referring to a paddy field or rice paddy (an irrigated or flooded field where rice is grown), it can also mean rough or unhusked rice, either before it is milled or as a crop to be harvested [source].
Japanese also has different words for rice in different states, which include:
- ご飯 (gohan) is cooked rice or a meal
- 飯 (meshi) is cooked rice, meal, food, one’s living or livelihood, or steamed rice
- ライス (raisu) is rice (especially when served on a plate)
- 米 (kome) is husked grains of rice, or a staple (product) or necessity
- 玄米 (genmai) is unpolised rice, unmilled rice or brown rice
- 稲 (ine) is a rice plant [source].
As does (Mandarin) Chinese:
- 饭 [飯] (fàn) is cooked rice
- 米饭 [米飯] (mǐfàn) is cooked rice
- 白饭 [白飯] (báifàn) is plain cooked rice
- 白米 (báimǐ) is polished rice
- 大米 (dàmǐ) is husked rice
- 米 (mǐ) is uncooked rice
- 稻 (dào) is rice growing in a field or a rice plant [source].
How about other languages?
