# The word corn **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 11, 2014, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-word-corn/685837 "2014-04-11T01:18:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Vaevictis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/f04885/32.png) [@Vaevictis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Vaevictis)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2014, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-word-corn/685837/1 "2014-04-11T01:18:54Z")
Tell me about the word corn. It seems that in European English it means grain. How does that relate to the New World product called by Americans corn? What do people in the UK call corn on the cob? Was corn just a word for grain that was later applied to the American English corn? What do Canadians call it? How does the terminology work in European vs. New world Spanish? ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2014, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-word-corn/685837/2 "2014-04-11T01:33:11Z")
Maize. US/CA/AU/NZ are corn, according [to here](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corn#Words_for_maize). ---
**Author:** ![Askance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/askance/32/8281_2.png) [@Askance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askance)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2014, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-word-corn/685837/3 "2014-04-11T01:33:34Z")
Corn is, or was at least, indeed the general term for grain. This is the origin of acorn, for instance. What we now call corn was so ubiquitous in the Americas that the general became the particular, in the same way that some Americans call all soda “coke”. The particular word for that grain is, or at least was, maize. ---
**Author:** ![jnglmassiv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f07891/32.png) [@jnglmassiv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jnglmassiv)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2014, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-word-corn/685837/4 "2014-04-11T03:29:52Z")
> [@Askance](#): > > Corn is, or was at least, indeed the general term for grain. This is the origin of acorn, for instance. There’s also peppercorn, barleycorn and corned beef which is cured with corns of salt. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2014, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-word-corn/685837/5 "2014-04-11T03:31:36Z")
> [@Vaevictis](#): > > How does the terminology work in European vs. New world Spanish? _Maíz_ is _maíz_, regardless of which side of the Atlantic you’re on. ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2014, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-word-corn/685837/6 "2014-04-11T03:38:20Z")
[The Master speaks.](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/94/how-could-the-romans-use-corn-its-american) As Cecil says, “corn” generally refers to whichever grain crop is most common in a particular region, which, in the USA (but few other places) is generally maize. In Britain, corn on the cob, sweetcorn, and popcorn are called “corn on the cob”, “sweetcorn”, and “popcorn”, but the corn growing out in the farmer’s field is generally wheat. Sometimes the grain in the farmer’s field may be oats or barley, and if so, they will generally be called that, rather than “corn”. Really, the only people who seem to get at all confused or bothered by this are chauvinistic Americans who want to insist that “corn” must always and everywhere only be used to mean maize. ---
**Author:** ![UDS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecae2f/32.png) [@UDS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UDS)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2014, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-word-corn/685837/7 "2014-04-11T05:18:35Z")
> [@jnglmassiv](#): > > There’s also peppercorn, barleycorn and corned beef which is cured with corns of salt. Yup. “Corn” doesn’t just cover cereal grains; it covers any kind of grains at all, including grains of salt or sand, though that usage is probably obsolete now. But it survives in “corned beef”, which has been treated with granular salt. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2014, 6:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-word-corn/685837/8 "2014-04-11T06:00:15Z")
> [@Vaevictis](#): > > What do people in the UK call corn on the cob? Corn on the cob. When the kernels are served off the cob, we call it sweetcorn. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2014, 6:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-word-corn/685837/9 "2014-04-11T06:02:19Z")
> [@njtt](#): > > [The Master speaks.](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/94/how-could-the-romans-use-corn-its-american) > > As Cecil says, “corn” generally refers to whichever grain crop is most common in a particular region, which, in the USA (but few other places) is generally maize. In Britain, corn on the cob, sweetcorn, and popcorn are called “corn on the cob”, “sweetcorn”, and “popcorn”, but the corn growing out in the farmer’s field is generally wheat. Sometimes the grain in the farmer’s field may be oats or barley, and if so, they will generally be called that, rather than “corn”. The field itself will often be called a cornfield though. ---
**Author:** ![Pitchmeister](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pitchmeister/32/3459_2.png) [@Pitchmeister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pitchmeister)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2014, 7:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-word-corn/685837/10 "2014-04-11T07:18:39Z")
Incidentally, in German, “Korn” means a single grain of anything (or, in a pars pro toto way, a lot of it). ---
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2014, 7:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-word-corn/685837/11 "2014-04-11T07:26:48Z")
And “cornflour” in the UK is corn starch, that is, maize flour - never wheat flour. ---
**Author:** ![jerez](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c68b51/32.png) [@jerez](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jerez)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2014, 7:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-word-corn/685837/12 "2014-04-11T07:29:00Z")
> [@Askance](#): > > This is the origin of acorn, for instance. Also related to _kernel_. There also seems to be a relation between _grain_ and _gram_. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2014, 7:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-word-corn/685837/13 "2014-04-11T07:37:07Z")
Also, cereals (chiefly wheat, barley, oats, rye - and not so often, maize) are sometimes referred to collectively as ‘corn crops’. ---
**Author:** ![UDS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecae2f/32.png) [@UDS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UDS)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2014, 7:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-word-corn/685837/14 "2014-04-11T07:40:28Z")
> [@jerez](#): > > . . . There also seems to be a relation between _grain_ and _gram_. If there is, it’s a fairly distant relationship. Gram/gramme, in the sense of the unit of weight, comes to English, through French, from Latin and ultimately from Greek _gramma_, a small weight. Whereas grain comes from the Latin _granum_, meaning a single grain (of anything). Of course it’s possible that the Greek small weight and the Latin single grain share a common Indo-European root. But it’s equally possible that “corn” shares the same root - a word with a “ger”-stem meaning something worn down or wasted away. ---
**Author:** ![naita](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naita/32/5862_2.png) [@naita](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/naita)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2014, 7:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-word-corn/685837/15 "2014-04-11T07:54:14Z")
> [@Pitchmeister](#): > > Incidentally, in German, “Korn” means a single grain of anything (or, in a pars pro toto way, a lot of it). In Norwegian “korn” is pretty much used everywhere English uses grain. (Except for when it isn’t.) But Swedish, for some reason, has decided the proper cereal crop, the one that gets to be called “korn”, is Barley. [Korn – Wikipedia](http://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korn) ---
**Author:** ![bob\_2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_2/32/3341_2.png) [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2014, 8:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-word-corn/685837/16 "2014-04-11T08:08:51Z")
It all sounds pretty corny to me:) ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2014, 8:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-word-corn/685837/17 "2014-04-11T08:10:07Z")
I’ve generally understood “corn” (in the more general European-style usage) to refer to any grain that typically grows with many kernels together in a compact head. See [this photo](http://www.teara.govt.nz/files/p17574nsil.jpg). The left two stalks (barley and wheat) might be called corn. The stalk on the right (oats) would probably not be called corn. At least, that’s how I’ve thought the word is used. In America, “corn” refers almost exclusively to maize in particular. It’s rarely called by the name “maize”. It’s usually just called corn. Although, I think “maize” is sufficiently well-known that most everyone in America understands that too. It’s popular around Thanksgiving time for corn farmers to plow a _maze_ (get it?) into their corn fields, like [this one](http://www.severscornmaze.com/photos_past_mazes.php), which is always popular with kids. Advertising for such mazes commonly involves punny plays on “maze”, “maize”, and “amazing”. I think that’s how most Americans come to know the word “maize” 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2014, 8:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-word-corn/685837/18 "2014-04-11T08:55:35Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > It’s popular around Thanksgiving time for corn farmers to plow a _maze_ (get it?) into their corn fields, like [this one](http://www.severscornmaze.com/photos_past_mazes.php), which is always popular with kids. Advertising for such mazes commonly involves punny plays on “maze”, “maize”, and “amazing”. I think that’s how most Americans come to know the word “maize” 🙂 Midwesterners you mean. I’ll say “semi-widespread” beyond that. Old commercial: Maize: You Call it Corn ([youtube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cuOlD0JZhM4)). But I thought it was (scanning Wikipedia for any Native American languages I actually know the name for)… they call it Naadą́ą́ʼ in the biggest native US language. It’s actually Taíno via Spanish, but they aren’t even mainlanders. ---
**Author:** ![Teuton](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/teuton/32/3864_2.png) [@Teuton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Teuton)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2014, 9:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-word-corn/685837/19 "2014-04-11T09:38:16Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > It’s popular around Thanksgiving time for corn farmers to plow a _maze_ (get it?) into their corn fields, like [this one](http://www.severscornmaze.com/photos_past_mazes.php), which is always popular with kids. Advertising for such mazes commonly involves punny plays on “maze”, “maize”, and “amazing”. I think that’s how most Americans come to know the word “maize” 🙂 This is also common in the UK as well - at least in the southwest, where there are 5 or 6 maize mazes that I drive past relatively regularly when they are in season. Such as [this one](http://www.amazingcornishmaizemaze.co.uk/). I don’t think they are as large as the ones in your link though! ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2014, 11:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-word-corn/685837/20 "2014-04-11T11:49:32Z")
Just for the record, “corn” is used to mean maize in Canada as well. In French Canada, there are two words: “maïs” but also “blé dinde”, literally “Indian corn”, although the word “blé” unadorned means wheat. I assume that the original American word was “Indian corn”, which then got shortened to “corn”. Remember that corn was a new world product and would have been new to the colonials. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-word-corn/685837.md?page=2)