[f. (in U.S.) BROOM + (Indian) CORN.] The American name of the Common Millet, Sorghum vulgare, of which the panicles are made into brooms and stiff brushes; also the Sorghum saccharatum or Sugar Millet of the East.
1817–8. Cobbett, Resid. U.S. (1822), 340. I have Broom-Corn and Seed-Stems enough to make fifty thousand such brushes.
1861. G. F. Berkeley, Sportsm. W. Prairies, xxiv. 410. The Americans called them ‘Broom corn.’
1886. Echo, 25 Sept., 4/2. Broom Bread … The latest novelty … is an American loaf made of broom corn flour.
1886. A. H. Church, Food Grains Ind., 85. Broom corn … is cultivated in some parts of Northern India … on account of the sugar which can be extracted from the stems.
