(I am a 74 year old English women-for context). Corn for me evokes the image of fields of golden cereals of unspecified type, swaying gently in waves in the wind, before being harvested. It could be barley, wheat, rye, oats or other rarer types of cereal, but definitely not maize (which I called sweetcorn as a child) as it doesn’t look the same at all.
I am an American in my 50s and I was today years old when I learned that British people born the same time as me are talking about wheat or oats when they say "corn".
I'm English and in my 40s and "corn" means wheat - "an ear of corn", for example. "Sweetcorn" is maize, although I'll allow "corn-on-the-cob". I don't understand why British English speakers need to say "corn" when they mean "sweetcorn". Just say flipping "sweetcorn" - you're not an American! And please don't get me started on British people saying "gotten". Or the fact that the sodding Guardian - a British newspaper - ran an article about shed wars in "back yards". It's a back garden!! A yard is specifically the paved area immediately by the back door behind terraces.
I'm not just being all "Yanks go home" about it, nor feeling annoyed about the homogenisation of language, but because there are problems with meaning and understanding. If someone British says they're "going to the bathroom", I assume they're going to brush their teeth or shower. We have a plethora of ways to say you're going to the loo/toilet/lav/smallest room, with lots of glorious euphemisms - going for a tinkle, splashing your boots etc. let's not lose that wonderful linguistic variation under the jugganaut of imported US English. It actually makes me sad too that children are being brought up by the telly and YouTube. :-/
Growing up in Southern England in the '70s and '80s, corn meant 'any cereal grain, particularly wheat' (but definitely not maize/ sweetcorn!). We have corn dolls made from cereal straw, cornflowers growing near cereal crops and cornfields containing any cereal crop ...but not maize/ sweetcorn. I think it might still be similar now, but as well as American films etc, popcorn might have influenced the evolving meaning.
Grew up in U.S. in '60s & '70s here, where a corn doll is a corn husk doll. Although, to be honest, as a little girl I imagined they were made of the corn cob, which we kids also used as swords.
I was raised in Denmark. In Danish, "korn" can refer to barley, wheat, rye, or oats, what Danes call "the four types of corn," "de fire kornsorter." We were taught them in primary school.
Maize in Danish is always "majs." There is no sign whatever of Danes using the word "korn" to refer to maize.
American, born 1990 in New York City. Corn means maize, and I only learned about the UK usage in college history courses learning about the Corn Laws.
Since you mention the phrase "Indian corn," I'll add: when I was a kid, that phrase specifically meant corn cobs with lots of different-colored kernels, especially used decoratively (say, on a wreath you might hang on your door in the fall). I haven't heard it in years, though, presumably because of changing norms around what is and isn't PC to refer to as "Indian" (like how in elementary school we would sit on the floor "Indian style," but today children are asked to sit "criss-cross-applesauce").
Sorry for the false start a few minutes ago. Here's what I started to say.
I grew up in the midwest cornbelt where my grandfather, like all the farmers around him, was a corn farmer. I never heard the word maize until I moved to the Mexico/US frontera where maíz is the common, Mexican-Spanish version of the Taino mahiz Columbus heard, only one of the many words for it in the land where it originated. It's interesting that in those languages where it is a native staple, there are different words for different stages of growth. In Nahautl, for instance, the hard grain is tlaolli, "on the cob" tender green grain is elotl, the growing stalk ohuatl, and the roasted or toasted kernels izquitl. Each stage has its specific uses in maize-based cultures.
I grew up in the Corn Belt where my grandfather, like all the farmers around him. were corn farmers. Never heard of maize until I moved to the Mexico/US t in the New World there were also many words for maize, including not onlyTaino mahiz (where Christo Colombo got it) but, for instance the more widespread
I grew up in the english midlands in the 1960s. I learned corn = ( wheat or barley or oats ) - I.e. generic grain as traditionally grown across the UK.
I subsequently lived in USA in the 1980s and then Australia so learned to use corn = maize.
I'm 71, born in the U.S. in 1954. Corn of course was the thing that grew on a cob with its various uses. I did know that it originally meant any grain but I did not know that it went further to small hard thing. Now I understand corned beef! I had not even connected grain of sand, etc. Interesting!
Ack! Born / raised in the states so have never understood why that British corn maiden tradition is called corn when it predates the North American plant being imported. Will call it wheat / grain maiden in my head from now on 🙂
I am English and grew up in the sixties and seventies, and spent some time in the agricutural countryside north of Newcastle. Corn for me is the crop that gives the beautiful golden colour to our fields in the autumn, definitely a variety of wheat, and definitely nothing to do with sweetcorn. I think it also makes a rather obvious appearance in the bread sheaves that decorate our churches at the harvest festival.
(I am a 74 year old English women-for context). Corn for me evokes the image of fields of golden cereals of unspecified type, swaying gently in waves in the wind, before being harvested. It could be barley, wheat, rye, oats or other rarer types of cereal, but definitely not maize (which I called sweetcorn as a child) as it doesn’t look the same at all.
Quite. It's very confusing!!
I am an American in my 50s and I was today years old when I learned that British people born the same time as me are talking about wheat or oats when they say "corn".
... and then there's a corn on the foot: clearly a small hard grain of some kind! And where do we get corny jokes from? Small and hard? Perhaps not.
I'm English and in my 40s and "corn" means wheat - "an ear of corn", for example. "Sweetcorn" is maize, although I'll allow "corn-on-the-cob". I don't understand why British English speakers need to say "corn" when they mean "sweetcorn". Just say flipping "sweetcorn" - you're not an American! And please don't get me started on British people saying "gotten". Or the fact that the sodding Guardian - a British newspaper - ran an article about shed wars in "back yards". It's a back garden!! A yard is specifically the paved area immediately by the back door behind terraces.
I'm not just being all "Yanks go home" about it, nor feeling annoyed about the homogenisation of language, but because there are problems with meaning and understanding. If someone British says they're "going to the bathroom", I assume they're going to brush their teeth or shower. We have a plethora of ways to say you're going to the loo/toilet/lav/smallest room, with lots of glorious euphemisms - going for a tinkle, splashing your boots etc. let's not lose that wonderful linguistic variation under the jugganaut of imported US English. It actually makes me sad too that children are being brought up by the telly and YouTube. :-/
*Cue the angry replies. Oh, well*
I mean wheat etc - I grew up in the East Anglian brrad basket which was full of various grains, but mostly referred to as corn.
Growing up in Southern England in the '70s and '80s, corn meant 'any cereal grain, particularly wheat' (but definitely not maize/ sweetcorn!). We have corn dolls made from cereal straw, cornflowers growing near cereal crops and cornfields containing any cereal crop ...but not maize/ sweetcorn. I think it might still be similar now, but as well as American films etc, popcorn might have influenced the evolving meaning.
Grew up in U.S. in '60s & '70s here, where a corn doll is a corn husk doll. Although, to be honest, as a little girl I imagined they were made of the corn cob, which we kids also used as swords.
I was raised in Denmark. In Danish, "korn" can refer to barley, wheat, rye, or oats, what Danes call "the four types of corn," "de fire kornsorter." We were taught them in primary school.
Maize in Danish is always "majs." There is no sign whatever of Danes using the word "korn" to refer to maize.
American, born 1990 in New York City. Corn means maize, and I only learned about the UK usage in college history courses learning about the Corn Laws.
Since you mention the phrase "Indian corn," I'll add: when I was a kid, that phrase specifically meant corn cobs with lots of different-colored kernels, especially used decoratively (say, on a wreath you might hang on your door in the fall). I haven't heard it in years, though, presumably because of changing norms around what is and isn't PC to refer to as "Indian" (like how in elementary school we would sit on the floor "Indian style," but today children are asked to sit "criss-cross-applesauce").
Try “maize”. What it should be called anyway.
Sorry for the false start a few minutes ago. Here's what I started to say.
I grew up in the midwest cornbelt where my grandfather, like all the farmers around him, was a corn farmer. I never heard the word maize until I moved to the Mexico/US frontera where maíz is the common, Mexican-Spanish version of the Taino mahiz Columbus heard, only one of the many words for it in the land where it originated. It's interesting that in those languages where it is a native staple, there are different words for different stages of growth. In Nahautl, for instance, the hard grain is tlaolli, "on the cob" tender green grain is elotl, the growing stalk ohuatl, and the roasted or toasted kernels izquitl. Each stage has its specific uses in maize-based cultures.
I grew up in the Corn Belt where my grandfather, like all the farmers around him. were corn farmers. Never heard of maize until I moved to the Mexico/US t in the New World there were also many words for maize, including not onlyTaino mahiz (where Christo Colombo got it) but, for instance the more widespread
I grew up in the english midlands in the 1960s. I learned corn = ( wheat or barley or oats ) - I.e. generic grain as traditionally grown across the UK.
I subsequently lived in USA in the 1980s and then Australia so learned to use corn = maize.
Fun read, thanks!
I found the article interesting but corny. By the way, did you explain my usage of “corny? Or, did I just miss it?
I'm 71, born in the U.S. in 1954. Corn of course was the thing that grew on a cob with its various uses. I did know that it originally meant any grain but I did not know that it went further to small hard thing. Now I understand corned beef! I had not even connected grain of sand, etc. Interesting!
Ack! Born / raised in the states so have never understood why that British corn maiden tradition is called corn when it predates the North American plant being imported. Will call it wheat / grain maiden in my head from now on 🙂
I am English and grew up in the sixties and seventies, and spent some time in the agricutural countryside north of Newcastle. Corn for me is the crop that gives the beautiful golden colour to our fields in the autumn, definitely a variety of wheat, and definitely nothing to do with sweetcorn. I think it also makes a rather obvious appearance in the bread sheaves that decorate our churches at the harvest festival.
https://youtu.be/_caMQpiwiaU?is=Z1paZ9Tx4fOEkMWw
I can't imagine a more beautiful thing!
It’s corn.