grain

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ɡɹeɪn/^[1]

Etymology

It is Middle English grein, grain, borrowed from Old French grain (“seed, grain”), grein,^[2][3][4][5] from Latin granum (“grain, seed”),^[2][3] from PIE Proto-Indo-European *gre-no- (“grain”), also the source of English corn.^[3][2] The senses of dye come partly from Old French graine, seed, kermes.^[4][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

A small hard particle: about 1300; earlier in the surname Graindorg (about 1202).^[2] The earliest sense of the word in English was a scarlet dye made from insects, kermes, in the early 13th century, believed to be seeds or berries.^[3][6]

Semantic evolution

A seed of a cereal plant is from about 1315–25,^[7][2] and a species of cereal from the late 14th century; in the US, where corn has a special sense, grain is the general word for wheat, rye, oats and barley.^[3] The smallest unit of weight, originally that of a grain of wheat, is from the early 15th century,^[3] and the smallest possible amount from the late 14th century.^[3] The texture of wood due to its fibres is from the 1560s, and against the grain (1650) is a metaphor from carpentry, as cutting across the fibres is harder.^[3] Word Origins adds that granary, granule and granite are from the same Latin word.^[8]

Timeline

• early 13th century – scarlet dye (kermes).^[3]
• c. 1300 – a small particle.^[2]
• c. 1325 – a seed of a cereal.^[2][7]
• early 15th century – a unit of weight.^[3]
• 1560s – the grain of wood.^[3]
• 1650 – against the grain.^[3]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. The seeds of cereal plants such as wheat, rice and oats, or the plants themselves.
2. A single seed of such a plant.
3. A small hard particle: a grain of sand.
4. The smallest amount: not a grain of truth.
5. The arrangement of fibres in wood, or the texture of stone, cloth or leather.
6. A small unit of weight, 0.065 gram.

Verb

1. To paint in imitation of the grain of wood.

Word family

• grainer
• grained
• grainless
• feedgrain
• fine-grain
• grainfield
• grainy
• multigrain

Related words

• coarse-grained
• fine-grained
• grain alcohol
• grains of paradise
• grosgrain
• granary
• granular
• granulate
• granulation
• grenade
• garnet
• corn
• granule
• granite
• engrain
• kernel

References

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