CROP CIRCLE

noun (Environment) A (usually circular) area of standing crops which has been inexplicably flattened, apparently by a swirling, vortex-like movement. Etymology: Formed by compounding: a circle of flattened crop. History and Usage: The puzzling phenomenon of crop circles (sometimes also called corn circles) has been perplexing scientists for about a decade. Since the early eighties increasing numbers of circles and other patterns have been reported in areas as far apart as the South of England, the farming belt of the US, and Australia, often appearing overnight. A number of theories--ranging from meteorological changes or fungi to alien spaceships or the activity of hoaxers--have been put forward to explain them, but none has been conclusive. They are the result not of the supernatural but of an everyday, common garden variety of fungi, according to biologists Mr Michael Hall and Mr Andrew Macara, who have been conducting a study into the crop circle conundrum. Sunday Telegraph 11 Mar. 1990, p. 5 Could the enormous increase in the perplexing crop circles be anything to do with the Earth's vital energies? Kindred Spirit Summer 1990, p. 26