In South African English, a mealie is maize — the plant, the cob, or the grain. American English calls this corn; in Taiwan the everyday word is 玉米. You will also hear mealie cob (the ear you roast or boil) and mealie-meal (maize flour, cooked as a thick porridge). It is ordinary, homely language there, not a scientific word. Outside southern Africa almost nobody says mealie; they say maize or corn. The word came into English from Afrikaans mielie. It has nothing to do with mealtime, and it is not the same as mealy, which means soft and floury, like a dry apple.