corn

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /kɔːn/
• (US, Canada) IPA^(key): /kɔɹn/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɔː(ɹ)n

Inherited from Middle English corn, from Old English corn, from Proto-West Germanic *korn, from Proto-Germanic *kurną, from Proto-Indo-European *ǵr̥h₂nóm (“grain; worn-down”), from *ǵerh₂- (“grow old, mature”).

Cognate with Dutch koren, German Low German Koorn, German Korn, Danish korn, Norwegian Bokmål korn, Norwegian Nynorsk korn and Swedish korn; see also Albanian grurë,^[1] Russian зерно́ (zernó), Czech zrno, Latin grānum and Lithuanian žirnis. Doublet of grain, gram, granum, and grao.

The sense maize (Zea mays) is an ellipsis of Indian corn that developed in 18th century North America.^[2]

corn (usually uncountable, plural corns)

2. (Commonwealth, but not Australia or New Zealand, uncountable) Any cereal plant (or its grain) that is the main crop or staple of a country or region.

   Synonyms: cereal, grain

   Hyponyms: wheat, barley, rye, maize, corn (maize sense)

   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Genesis 42:2, column 2:

     And hee ſaid, Beholde, I haue heard that there is corne in Egypt: get you downe thither and buy for vs from thence, that we may liue, and not die.

   • 1847, John Mason Neale, Stories from heathen mythology and Greek history, page 115:

     Among the divinities that dwelt on Mount Olympus, none was more friendly to the husbandman than Demeter, goddess of corn.

   • 1887, Karl Marx, “The Working Day”, in Samuel Moore and Edward Aveling, transl., edited by Frederick [i.e., Friedrich] Engels, Capital: A Critical Analysis of Capitalist Production: Translated from the Third German Edition, volume I, London: Swan Sonnenschein, Lowrey, & Co., […], →OCLC, part III (The Production of Absolute Surplus-value), section 6 (The Struggle for the Normal Working Day. […]), page 267:

     Moreover, however much the individual manufacturer might give the rein to his old lust for gain, the spokesmen and political leaders of the manufacturing class ordered a change of front and of speech towards the workpeople. They had entered upon the contest for the repeal of the Corn Laws, and needed the workers to help them to victory. They promised, therefore, not only a double-sized loaf of bread, but the enactment of the Ten Hours' Bill in the Free Trade millenium.

   • 1887, James Death, The Beer of the Bible: One of the Hitherto Unknown Leavens of Exodus. […], page 12:

     [T]here exists arguments in favour of regarding one of the eatable varieties of "leaven," Machmetzeth, as the beer of the Hebrews. The mention of beer by the Egyptians is frequent; under the name of Hek, two intoxicating beverages are included. The components of these beers, individually, are not known: one was made from corn, the other was a medicated or sweetened beer, due to the addition of honey, or system of brewing.

   • 1909, Johann David Wyss (Susannah Mary Paull, translator), The Swiss Family Robinson, page 462:

     I found that we had nearly a hundred bushels of corn, including wheat, maize, and barley, to add to our store.

4. (US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, uncountable) Maize, a grain crop of the species Zea mays.

   Synonym: Indian corn (obsolete sense)

   Hypernyms: grain, corn (grain sense)

   Hyponyms: field corn, dent corn, grain corn, sweet corn, Indian corn (current sense)

   • 1809, Edward Augustus Kendall, Travels Through the Northern Parts of the United States‎^[2]:

     The planting or sowing of maize, exclusively called corn, was just accomplished on the Town Hill, when I reached it.

   • 1998 February 18, Colin G. Calloway, New Worlds for All: Indians, Europeans, and the Remaking of Early America‎^[3], JHU Press, →ISBN, pages 51–52:

     Corn was the staff of life for many Indian people before contact, and it became the staff of life for many European colonists. Corn was higher in nutrition than most other grain crops. John Lawson, who travelled in South Carolina and into the interior Indian country in 1701, was one of the many colonists who sang the praises of corn.

5. A grain or seed, especially of a cereal crop.

   He paid her the nominal fee of two corns of barley.

   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, John 12:24, column 2:

     Verely, verely, I ſay vnto you, Except a corne of wheat fall into the ground, and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.

6. A small, hard particle.
   • 1612–1626, Joseph Hall, “[Contemplations upon the Principal Passages in the Holy Story. Book I.] Of Man.”, in Josiah Pratt, editor, The Works of the Right Reverend Father in God, Joseph Hall, D.D. […], volume I (Contemplations), London: […] C[harles] Whittingham, […]; for Williams and Smith, […], published 1808, →OCLC, part IV (Contemplations on the Old Testament), page 8:

     The least corn of sand is not so small to the whole earth, as man is to the heaven: […]

   • 1852, Thomas Antisell, Hand-book of the Useful Arts:

     corns of powder

7. (uncountable) A type of granular snow formed by repeated melting and refreezing, often in mountain spring conditions.

   Synonym: corn snow

9. (Jamaica, MLE, slang, firearms, uncountable) Bullets, ammunition, charge and discharge of firearms.
   • 2014 June 9, Andrae Hugh Sutherland respectively Popcaan of Popcaan, “Where We Come From” (track 13), in Where We Come From‎^[4]:

     R.I.P Scumpy ah you did say Popcaan
     And if a boy diss we clap corn.

   • 2016 September 9, Liquez respectively Dimzy of 67, “Jump Out Gang” (track 7), in Let’s Lurk‎^[5]:

     We got spinners and dotties
     We got .40s and MACs
     We got nuff live corn
     […] See the four-door pausing
     Skengs out, everyone runnin
     But the corn just slapped and floored em
     50 shots in that mop

10. (Jamaica, slang, uncountable) Money.
    • 1984, Smiley Culture, Cockney Translator (song title)‎^[6]:

      You know dem have wedge while we have corn. Say Cockney say be first, my son! We just say Gwan!

• → Kashubian: kòrné (Canada)
• Tok Pisin: kon
• → Māori: kānga

corn (third-person singular simple present corns, present participle corning, simple past and past participle corned) (transitive)

1. (US, Canada) To granulate; to form (a substance) into grains.

   to corn gunpowder

2. (US, Canada) To preserve using coarse salt, e.g. corned beef.
3. (US, Canada) To provide (an animal) with corn (typically maize; or, in Scotland, oats) for feed.

   Corn the horses.

4. (transitive, obsolete) To render intoxicated.

   ale strong enough to corn one

5. (Jamaica, MLE, slang) To shoot up with bullets as by a shotgun (corn).
   • 2019 September 11, Yanko, “Next Up”, in #ACGK‎^[7], 1:49:

     Anywhere, anytime, I'll get him, if he's in love; I'll corn his wedding
     He backed his wetter, I backed my wetter but who really held that wetting?

Inherited from Middle English corne, from Old French corn (modern French cor), from Latin cornū. Doublet of corno, cornu, and horn.

corn (plural corns)

1. A type of callus, usually on the feet or hands.

   Synonym: clavus

   • c. 1591–1595 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Romeo and Ivliet”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene v], page 57, column 2:

     Welcome Gentlemen, / Ladies that haue their toes / Vnplagu’d with Cornes, will walke about with you: […]

2. (veterinary medicine) An inflammatory disease of a horse's hoof, at the caudal part of the sole.
3. (veterinary medicine) Skin hyperplasia with underlying fibroma between both digits of cattle.

• callus

From corny.

corn (uncountable)

1. (US, Canada) Something (e.g., acting, humour, music, or writing) which is deemed old-fashioned or intended to induce emotion.^[3]
   • 1975, Tschirlie, Backpacker:

     He had a sharp wit, true enough, but also a good, healthy mountaineer's love of pure corn, the slapstick stuff, the in-jokes that get funnier with every repetition and never amuse anybody who wasn't there.

   • 1986, Linda Martin, Kerry Segrave, Women in Comedy:

     There were lots of jokes on the show and they were pure corn, but the audience didn't mind.

   • 2007, Bob L. Cox, Fiddlin' Charlie Bowman: an East Tennessee old-time music pioneer and his musical family:

     The bulk of this humor was pure corn, but as hillbilly material it was meant to be that way.

Rhyming euphemism for porn, and with influence from the emoji substitute 🌽.

corn (uncountable)

2. (Internet, euphemistic) pornography; porn

• Cornhub
• cornography

• Cron

Inherited from Latin cornū

• IPA^(key): (Central, Balearic) [ˈkɔrn]
• IPA^(key): (Valencia) [ˈkɔɾn]

corn m (plural corns)

1. horn (of an animal)

   Synonym: banya

2. (music) horn
3. sea snail

• “corn”, in Diccionari de la llengua catalana [Dictionary of the Catalan Language] (in Catalan), second edition, Institute of Catalan Studies [Catalan: Institut d'Estudis Catalans], April 2007

From Old Irish corn (“drinking horn”), from Latin cornū.

• IPA^(key): /koːɾˠn̪ˠ/

corn m (genitive singular coirn, nominative plural coirn)

1. horn (a musical instrument)
2. drinking-horn

   Synonyms: corn óil, buabhall

3. (sports) cup
4. (motor racing) plate

corn (present analytic cornann, future analytic cornfaidh, verbal noun cornadh, past participle corntha)

1. (transitive) roll, coil

• cornaigh, cornáil

• Dinneen, Patrick S. (1927), “corn”, in Foclóir Gaeḋilge agus Béarla, 2nd edition, Dublin: Irish Texts Society, page 248; reprinted with additions 1996, →ISBN
• Ó Dónaill, Niall (1977), “corn”, in Foclóir Gaeilge–Béarla, Dublin: An Gúm, →ISBN
• de Bhaldraithe, Tomás (1959), “corn”, in English-Irish Dictionary, An Gúm
• “corn”, in New English-Irish Dictionary, Foras na Gaeilge, 2013–2026

Inherited from Old English corn, from Proto-West Germanic *korn, from Proto-Germanic *kurną, from Proto-Indo-European *ǵr̥h₂nóm. Doublet of greyn.

• coorn, coren, corne, curn, koren, korn

• IPA^(key): /kɔrn/, /koːrn/, /kurn/

corn (plural corn or cornes)

1. Any plant that bears grain, especially wheat.
2. A field planted with such plants.
3. Any kind of grain (especially as food)
   • p. 1154, “AD 1137”, in Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (MS. Laud Misc. 636, continuation), Peterborough, folio 89, verso; republished at Oxford: Digital Bodleian, 8 February 2018:

     þa ƿaſ coꝛn dære: ⁊ flec ⁊ cæſe ⁊ butere. foꝛ nan ƿæſ o þe land. Ƿreccemen ſturuen of hungær.

     Grain was precious then, and meat, cheese, and butter, because there wasn't any in the country. Wretched men died from hunger.

   • c. 1395, John Wycliffe, John Purvey [et al.], transl., Bible (Wycliffite Bible (later version), MS Lich 10.)‎^[8], published c. 1410, Matheu 3:12, folio 2, recto, column 1; republished as Wycliffe's translation of the New Testament, Lichfield: Bill Endres, 2010:

     whos wynewing cloþ is in his hond .· ⁊ he ſchal fulli clenſe his coꝛn flooꝛ / and he ſchal gadere his wheete in to his berne .· but þe chaf he ſchal bꝛenne wiþ fier þat mai not be quenchid

     His winnowing fan is in his hand; he'll fully clean his threshing-floor, he'll gather up his wheat into his barn, and he'll burn the chaff with unquenchable fire.

4. A seed of a non-grain plant.
   • c. 1395, John Wycliffe, John Purvey [et al.], transl., Bible (Wycliffite Bible (later version), MS Lich 10.)‎^[9], published c. 1410, Matheu 13:31-32, folio 6, verso, column 1; republished as Wycliffe's translation of the New Testament, Lichfield: Bill Endres, 2010:

     An oþer parable iheſus puttide foꝛþ to hem. / ⁊ ſeide / þe kyngdom of heuenes is lijk to a coꝛn of ſeneuey · which a man took ⁊ ſewe in his feeld · / which is þe leeſt of alle ſeedis / but whanne it haþ woxen .· it is the mooſt of alle woꝛtis · ⁊ is maad a tre / ſo þe bꝛiddis of þe eir comen ⁊ dwellen in þe bowis þerof.

     Jesus put another parable forwards to them, saying: "The Kingdom of Heaven is like a mustard seed that a person took and sowed in their field; / it is the smallest of all seeds, but when it has grown, it is the largest of all plants; it becomes a tree, so the birds of the air come and nest in its branches."

5. A grain or seed used as a unit of weight.
6. The optimum product; the superior portion.
7. The deserving; those who are morally right.
8. A bole (external tumourous growth).

• English: corn (see there for further descendants)
• Scots: corn, curn
• Yola: coorn, koorn

• “cō̆rn, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 8 July 2018.

corn

1. alternative form of corne (“callus”)

Inherited from Proto-West Germanic *korn, from Proto-Germanic *kurną, from Proto-Indo-European *ǵr̥h₂nóm (“grain”).

Cognate with Old Frisian korn, Old Saxon korn (Low German Koorn), Dutch koren, Old High German korn, Old Norse korn, Gothic 𐌺𐌰𐌿𐍂𐌽 (kaurn).

• IPA^(key): /korn/, [korˠn]

corn n

1. corn, a grain or seed
   • 880-1150, Anglo-Saxon Chronicle

     Hīe wǣron benumene æġðer ġe ðæs ċēapes ġe ðæs cornes.

     They were deprived both of cattle and of corn.

2. a cornlike pimple, a corn on the foot

Strong a-stem:

• Middle English: corn, coorn, coren, corne, curn, koren, korn
  • English: corn (see there for further descendants)
  • Scots: corn, curn
  • Yola: coorn, koorn

• cor, coir, cuir
• corne f

Inherited from Latin cornū.

corn oblique singular, m (oblique plural corns, nominative singular corns, nominative plural corn)

1. horn (a bony projection on the head of some animals)
2. corner, angle, secluded place
3. (figurative) strength, power
4. horn (an instrument used to create sound)

   Synonyms: olifan, graisle

• French: cor

• Frédéric Godefroy (1880–1902), “corn”, in Dictionnaire de l’ancienne langue française et de tous ses dialectes du IX^e au XV^e siècle […], Paris: F[riedrich] Vieweg; Émile Bouillon, →OCLC.

From Latin cornū.

• IPA^(key): /ˈkorn̪/

corn m (genitive cuirn, nominative plural cuirn)

1. drinking-horn, goblet

• Irish: corn
• Manx: cayrn
• Scottish Gaelic: còrn

• Gregory Toner, Sharon Arbuthnot, Máire Ní Mhaonaigh, Marie-Luise Theuerkauf, Dagmar Wodtko, editors (2019), “corn”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language

• IPA^(key): [korn]

Inherited from Latin cornū.

corn n (plural coarne)

1. horn

• cornut

Inherited from Latin cornus.

corn m (plural corni)

1. cornel, European cornel, Cornus mas
2. rafter (of a house)

• coarnă

• sânger

Inherited from Middle English corn, from Old English corn.

corn (plural corns)

1. corn
2. oats
3. (in the plural) crops (of grain)

corn (third-person singular simple present corns, present participle cornin, simple past and past participle cornt)

1. to feed (a horse) with oats or grain

Inherited from Middle Welsh corn, from Proto-Brythonic *korn, from Latin cornū.

• IPA^(key): /kɔrn/
• Rhymes: -ɔrn

corn m (plural cyrn)

1. horn
2. antler

   Synonym: rhaidd

3. chimney

   Synonym: simnai

4. corn, callus

   Synonym: caleden

• Griffiths, Bruce; Glyn Jones, Dafydd (1995), “horn”, in Geiriadur yr Academi: The Welsh Academy English–Welsh Dictionary‎^[10], Cardiff: University of Wales Press, →ISBN
• D. G. Lewis, N. Lewis, editors (2005–present), “corn”, in Gweiadur: the Welsh–English Dictionary, Gwerin
• R. J. Thomas, G. A. Bevan, P. J. Donovan, A. Hawke, et al., editors (1950–present), “corn”, in Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru Online (in Welsh), University of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh & Celtic Studies