In grain crops, the flowering or seed-bearing head of a plant like wheat or barley; the upper part containing the grain.
From 'ear' (the grain head) + 'head,' though 'ear' alone already means this in botanical terms. The compound emphasizes the plant part itself.
The term 'earhead' shows how different cultures used 'ear' differently—in English agriculture, 'ear' described the grain head because it resembles a human ear sticking out, but in other languages they used completely different words for the same thing!
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