Meaning & use
benne
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Meaning
noununcountableAmericanregional
Sesame, the plant or especially its small seeds, as the word is used in the Southern United States, where it is baked into cookies and crackers.
Grammar: Usually uncountable and often used before another noun: benne seeds, benne wafers.
Patterns
- benne seeds
- benne wafers
My grandmother in Charleston toasted benne for her famous wafers.
Benne was brought to the American South by enslaved West Africans and became a staple of Lowcountry cooking.
The bakery sprinkles benne on its crackers for a nutty crunch.
Common combinations
- benne seed
- A single benne seed is tiny, but toasted together they give a rich flavor.
- benne wafer
- Visitors to Charleston often take home a tin of benne wafers.
- toasted benne
- Toasted benne gives the salad a deep, nutty taste.
- benne cookie
- She served a benne cookie with her afternoon tea.
- benne oil
- Older Southern recipes sometimes called for benne oil instead of olive oil.
Synonyms and how they differ
- sesame
- Sesame is the standard, everyday word everywhere, while benne is a regional term used mainly in the American South and carries a sense of heritage.
Word family
- benne seed noun
- a sesame seed, in Southern usage
- benne wafer noun
- a thin crisp cookie made with toasted sesame seeds
- sesame noun
- the standard word for the same plant and seed
Practice
In Charleston, a traditional thin cookie called a ___ wafer is made with toasted sesame seeds.
Choose one answer.
Benne is the Southern word for sesame, so a benne wafer is a sesame cookie. The other options are breads or pastries and are not made from sesame wafers.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “benne”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.