corn

corn

corn¹ [kôrn]

n.

[ME & OE < IE base * ger-, to ripen, mature, grow old > GRAIN, CHURN, Gr gerōn, old man]

1. Now Dial. a tiny, hard particle, as of salt or sand; granule; grain

2. a small, hard seed or seedlike fruit, esp. a seed or grain of a cereal grass; kernel: now chiefly in compounds, as peppercorn, barleycorn

3.

☆ a) a cultivated American cereal plant (Zea mays) of the grass family, with the grain borne on cobs enclosed in husks; maize

b) the ears or kernels of this cereal plant

4. Brit.

a) the seeds of all cereal grasses, as wheat, rye, barley, etc.; grain

b) any plant or plants producing grain

5. the leading cereal crop in a particular place, as wheat in England or oats in Scotland and Ireland

6. Informal corn whiskey

☆ 7. Informal ideas, humor, music, etc. regarded as old-fashioned, trite, banal, or sentimental

vt.

1. to form into granules

2. to preserve or pickle with salt granules or in brine

3. to feed grain to (animals)

corn² [kôrn]

n.

[ME & OFr corne < L cornu,HORN]

a hard, thick, painful growth of skin, esp. on a toe, caused by pressure or friction