corn

English has two words spelled corn: grain, inherited from Old English, and the hard patch of skin on the foot, from Latin cornu, horn.^[1][2][3]

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈkɔːn/ (UK); /ˈkoɹn/ (US)^[4]

corn¹ grain

Etymology

It is inherited from Old English corn (“a seed of grain; grain”),^[1][2][5] from Proto-Germanic *kurną (“small seed”),^[2][3] source also of Old Frisian and Old Saxon korn, Dutch koren, German Korn, Old Norse korn and Gothic 𐌺𐌰𐌿𐍂𐌽 (kaurn),^[2][1] from PIE *ǵr̥h₂nóm, from Proto-Indo-European *ǵerh₂- (“to grow old, ripen”), also the source of Latin granum (“grain”) (see grain).^[3][5][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The seed of plants other than cereals, as of a grape or pepper: before 700 in the OED;^[6] a seed of grain from about 1000.^[6] Barnhart has berecorn, a grain of barley, about 700.^[1]

Semantic evolution

A small hard particle, as of sand or salt, is from about 888;^[6] Word Origins notes it could even be used of hail.^[7] The Old English word meant grain with the seed still in rather than a particular plant, and it came to mean the leading crop of a district:^[2] wheat in England, oats in Scotland and Ireland,^[2] and in America, from about 1600, maize, at first Indian corn.^[2] The verb, to form into grains, is from the 1550s, and to preserve with grains of salt from the 1560s, hence corned beef.^[2] Corny, trite, developed in the 1930s from a word for music of a rural kind.^[7]

Timeline

• before 700 – a seed.^[6]
• c. 888 – a small particle.^[6]
• c. 1000 – a grain of cereal.^[6]
• 1550s – to granulate (verb).^[2]
• 1560s – to preserve with salt.^[2]
• c. 1600 – maize, in America.^[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. (North America) maize, or its kernels eaten as a vegetable.
2. (British) The chief cereal crop of a region, such as wheat or, in Scotland, oats.
3. A single grain of a cereal.
4. (informal) Something trite or sentimental.

Verb

1. To preserve meat with salt: corned beef.

Word family

• corny
• cornflour
• cornflakes
• barleycorn
• popcorn
• peppercorn

corn² hard skin on the foot

Etymology

It is Middle English corne, borrowed from Old French corn (“horn; a corn on the foot”) (Anglo-Norman corn),^[1][2][8] from Latin cornu (“horn”) (see horn),^[1][5] from PIE Proto-Indo-European *ḱer- (“horn; head”).^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A horny thickening of the skin, usually on a toe: probably before 1425, in a translation of Chauliac's surgery;^[1] about 1440 in the OED.^[6]

Semantic evolution

To tread on someone's corns, to hurt their feelings, is from about 1845.^[6] Compounds such as corn-plaster and corn-cutter are from 1767.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 1425 – a corn on the foot.^[1]
• 1767 – corn-plaster etc.^[6]
• c. 1845 – tread on someone's corns.^[6]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A small, painful area of hardened, thickened skin on the foot, especially on a toe.

Related words

• grain
• kernel
• horn
• cornea
• cornet
• unicorn

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
5. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press