Corn (term)

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 ...

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Encyclopedia

Corn is an English word dating back to Anglo-Saxon times or earlier meaning cereal

Cereal

Cereals, or cereal grains, are mostly Poaceae cultivated for their edible brans or fruit seeds . Cereal grains are grown in greater quantities and provide more energy worldwide than any other type of crop; they are therefore staple foods....
 or grain. It commonly refers, in modern American usage, to Indian corn, that is, maize

Maize

Maize , known as corn in some countries, is a cereal domesticated in Mesoamerica and subsequently spread throughout the American continents....
, but in other times and places is used to refer to wheat

Wheat

Wheat , is a worldwide cultivated Poaceae from the Levant region of the Middle East. Globally, after maize, wheat is the second most-produced food among the cereal just above rice....
, barley

Barley

Barley is an annual plant cereal grain derived from the grass Hordeum vulgare. It serves as a major animal feed crop, with smaller amounts used for malting and in health food, as well as the making of alcoholic beverages beer and whisky....
, rye

Rye

Rye is a Poaceae grown extensively as a grain and forage crop. It is a member of the wheat tribe and is closely related to barley and wheat. Rye grain is used for flour, rye bread, rye beer, some rye whiskey, some vodkas, and animal fodder....
 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 ...

The second verse goes on

Between the acres of the rye

Rye

Rye is a Poaceae grown extensively as a grain and forage crop. It is a member of the wheat tribe and is closely related to barley and wheat. Rye grain is used for flour, rye bread, rye beer, some rye whiskey, some vodkas, and animal fodder....
, 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

Bible

The Bible is the central religious text of Judaism and Christianity. The exact Books of the Bible is dependent on the religious traditions of specific denominations....
 similarly uses corn on many occasions, such as 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

The early nineteenth century British Corn Laws

Corn Laws

The Corn Laws were import tariffs designed to Protectionism domestic British corn prices against competition from less expensive foreign imports between 1815 and 1846....
 referred to the importation of wheat

Wheat

Wheat , is a worldwide cultivated Poaceae from the Levant region of the Middle East. Globally, after maize, wheat is the second most-produced food among the cereal just above rice....
.

To corn, meant, among other things, to sprinkle with grains of salt, whence the term corned beef

Corned beef

In the U.S. and Canada, Corned beef has two meanings. One refers to a cut of beef Curing or Pickling in a seasoned brine. The other use of the term refers to a tinned product generally found with canned goods on supermarket shelves ...
. It also meant to concentrate into grains; see History of gunpowder

History of gunpowder

Gunpowder was the first chemical explosive and the only one known until the invention of nitrocellulose, nitroglycerin, smokeless powder and Trinitrotoluene in the 19th century....
.

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

Black pepper

Black pepper is a flowering plant vine in the family Piperaceae, cultivated for its fruit, which is usually dried and used as a spice and seasoning....
 and barleycorn for a grain of barley

Barley

Barley is an annual plant cereal grain derived from the grass Hordeum vulgare. It serves as a major animal feed crop, with smaller amounts used for malting and in health food, as well as the making of alcoholic beverages beer and whisky....
.

Maize

Maize

Maize , known as corn in some countries, is a cereal domesticated in Mesoamerica and subsequently spread throughout the American continents....
 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 (with general grain meaning)

• Broom corn: type of millet
  Millet
  
  The millets are a group of small-seeded species of cereal Crop or grains, widely grown around the world for food and fodder. They do not form a scientific classification group, but rather a functional or agronomic one....
  
• Corn dolly
  Corn dolly
  
  Corn dollies are a form of straw work made for, and associated with, harvest customs of Europe before mechanisation.Before Christianisation, in traditional pagan European culture it was believed that the spirit of the "corn" lived amongst the crop, and that the harvest made it effectively homeless....
  : model made of straw
  Straw
  
  Straw is an agricultural by-product, the dry wikt:stalk of a cereal plant, after the grain or seed has been removed. Straw makes up about half of the yield of cereal crops such as barley, oats, rice, rye and wheat....
  
• Corn exchange
  Corn exchange
  
  A corn exchange was a building where farmers and merchants traded cereal grains. Such trade was common in towns and cities of the Great Britain and Ireland until the 19th century, but as the trade became centralised in the 20th century many such buildings were used for other purposes....
  : place where cereals were traded