Corn (term)
Corn is an English word dating back to Anglo-Saxon times or earlier meaning cereal or grain. It commonly refers, in modern American usage, to Indian corn, that is, maize, but in other times and places is used to refer to wheat, barley, rye and so on.
Early Modern English uses
Shakespeare frequently refers to corn, for example
It was a lover and his lass, With a hey and a ho and a hey, nonny-no, That o’er the green corn field did pass, In spring time ... [1]
The second verse goes on
Between the acres of the rye, With a hey and a ho and a hey, nonny-no, These pretty country-folks would lie, In spring time ...
indicating the meaning of the corn in this case.
The 1611 Authorized King James Version of the Bible similarly uses corn on many occasions, such as Genesis 41:57 which has
And all countries came into Egypt to Joseph for to buy corn; because that the famine was so sore in all lands
where modern US versions have for example
In fact, all the world came to Joseph to obtain rations of grain, for famine had gripped the whole world[2]
The early nineteenth century British Corn Laws referred to the importation of wheat.
To corn, meant, among other things, to sprinkle with grains of salt, whence the term corned beef. It also meant to concentrate into grains; see History of gunpowder.
Particular sorts of corn
The word was often used to signify any small edible grain. Thus peppercorn was used for the fruit of black pepper and barleycorn for a grain of barley.
Maize was introduced to the English-speaking world during the colonization of America. Originally known as Indian corn, the term was increasingly often shortened to corn in North America, but not in Britain and Ireland, where the original meanings are retained.
See also
- Broom corn: type of millet
- Corn dolly: model made of straw
- Corn exchange: place where cereals were traded
References
- ^ As You Like It, Act V, Scene 3
- ^ Genesis 41:57 New American Bible