corn

Forms

corn n (strong a-stem; genitive singular cornes)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-West Germanic *korn, from Proto-Germanic *kurną (“corn, grain”), from Proto-Indo-European *ǵr̥h₂nóm (“grain”).^[1][2] The noun is shared by all the old Germanic languages: Gothic 𐌺𐌰𐌿𐍂𐌽 (kaurn), Old Norse korn, Old Saxon korn, Old Frisian korn and Old High German korn.^[2][3][4]

Kroonen calls it the Indo-European word for “kernel”: its closest relatives are Latin grānum (“grain, seed”), Old Irish grán (“grain”) and Lithuanian žìrnis (“pea”).^[2] Holthausen and Köbler set it in ablaut with Old High German kerno (“kernel”) and Old Norse kjarni (“kernel”), and trace the root to Proto-Indo-European *ǵerh₂-, a verb of wearing down and ripening, from which they also derive ċeorl.^[3][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest datable record is the will of Ealdorman Alfred (871×899), which survives as a single sheet of the later ninth century that Gelling counts as the original: the beneficiary is to give “XXX ombras cornes eghwelce gere to Hrofescestre”, “thirty ambers of corn every year to Rochester”.^[5][6] In the Pastoral Care (890×897) it means the seeds of an apple: “Sua se æppel bið betogen mid anfealdre rinde, & ðeah monig corn oninnan him hæfð”, “as the apple is covered with a single rind and yet has many seeds within it”.^[7][6][8]

Semantic evolution

The Old English word covers both a single seed or grain and grain as a crop.^[9][8] The plant-names dictionary notes that in the first sense it always means seed corn, and that the second is any cereal grown as a crop, in the British sense of “corn”.^[9] In the Gospels senepes corn renders Latin “granum sinapis”, the grain of mustard seed, and in a homily the Judge gathers the clean corn into his barn.^[8] It is also used of berries (the ivy bears corn golde gelice “berries like gold” in the Herbarium) and, in the Leechdoms, of a hard pimple on a horse's feet.^[8] The Chronicle tells of the Danes deprived of their corn and of a year when corn was dearer than any man remembered.^[8]

The word continued as Middle English corn, first of a crop of cereals or grain as sown or grown, and is now English corn.^[10][11]

Timeline

• 871×899 – XXX ombras cornes “thirty ambers of corn” in Ealdorman Alfred's will, held to be an original single sheet.^[5][6]
• 890×897 – the seeds of an apple in the Pastoral Care (Hatton 20).^[7][6]
• s. ix/x – the Danes deprived of their corn in the Parker Chronicle.^[12][8]
• s. x med. – grains of a herb in Bald's Leechbook.^[13][6]
• c1175 – Middle English corn in the Bodley Homilies.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. a grain, a seed, a berry.^[8][14][4]
2. corn, grain as a crop or harvest.^[8][9]
3. (medicine) a hard pimple, a corn on the feet.^[8][14]

Word family

• cyrnel
• berecorn
• hwǣtecorn
• piporcorn
• moldcorn
• lybcorn

Descendants

• Middle English corn (→ English corn; Scots corn; Scots curn)^[1]

Related words

• ċeorl

Usage notes

Holthausen lists a separate corn in corntrēow “cornel tree”, borrowed from Latin cornus.^[3]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 312
3. ^ a b c Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 58
4. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Altenglisches Wörterbuch, 4th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling, p. s.v. corn
5. ^ a b The Electronic Sawyer: Online Catalogue of Anglo-Saxon Charters, revised ed. by S. E. Kelly and R. Rushforth, King's College London / University of Cambridge, esawyer.lib.cam.ac.uk, p. S 1508
6. ^ a b c d e Healey, Antonette diPaolo; Price Wilkin, John; Xiang, Xin, eds. (2009), Dictionary of Old English Web Corpus, Toronto: Dictionary of Old English Project
7. ^ a b Gneuss, Helmut; Lapidge, Michael (2014), Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts: A Bibliographical Handlist of Manuscripts and Manuscript Fragments Written or Owned in England up to 1100, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, p. 499
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement, p. 166
9. ^ a b c Bierbaumer, Peter; Sauer, Hans; Klug, Helmut W.; Krischke, Ulrike, eds. (2007–), Dictionary of Old English Plant Names, Graz, oldenglish-plantnames.org, p. s.v. corn
10. ^ a b Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
11. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
12. ^ Gneuss, Helmut; Lapidge, Michael (2014), Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts: A Bibliographical Handlist of Manuscripts and Manuscript Fragments Written or Owned in England up to 1100, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, p. 83
13. ^ Gneuss, Helmut; Lapidge, Michael (2014), Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts: A Bibliographical Handlist of Manuscripts and Manuscript Fragments Written or Owned in England up to 1100, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, p. 412
14. ^ a b Clark Hall, J. R. (1960), A Concise Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, 4th ed., with a supplement by H. D. Meritt, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 73