Timeline for Why does "corn" mean "maize" in American English?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
13 events
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| Mar 1, 2015 at 19:23 | history | protected | tchrist♦ | ||
| Oct 11, 2014 at 9:30 | answer | added | Perigord | timeline score: 3 | |
| Jan 25, 2014 at 20:58 | comment | added | Jules | @Mitch - that wouldn't be an interesting title. "corn" has meant "grain" in British English since before there was any other kind of English to compare it to. OED has attestations back as far as 888, whereas its earliest attestation of the US meaning is 1697. The US diverged in meaning, so there is a valid question as to why. British usage has remained virtually constant, so there is no interesting question to answer. | |
| Jan 4, 2013 at 1:35 | comment | added | Mitch | Alternate title: 'Why does "corn" mean "grain" in British English?' In BrE, what is the hypernym for wheat barley, rye? Is it 'grain' or 'corn' and if both which one is more common? Also, what do they say in Australia? | |
| Jan 3, 2013 at 20:24 | comment | added | Chris S | youtube.com/watch?v=gXSaI2c0vQY | |
| Jan 3, 2013 at 16:55 | vote | accept | Wok | ||
| Jan 3, 2013 at 15:18 | history | edited | RegDwigнt |
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| Jan 3, 2013 at 13:40 | answer | added | Peter Shor | timeline score: 45 | |
| Jan 3, 2013 at 13:10 | comment | added | Richard |
In British English, "corn" can mean any type of "grain": increasingly not really true today; the en-US usage meaning "maize" is increasingly the meaning (at least without context suggesting the "locally common cereal crop" to paraphrase my dictionary). I assume this is both the availability of sweetcorn and popcorn in addition to the usual cultural invasion factor.
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| Jan 3, 2013 at 13:05 | answer | added | spiceyokooko | timeline score: 8 | |
| Jan 3, 2013 at 13:02 | history | tweeted | twitter.com/#!/StackEnglish/status/286819911660105728 | ||
| Jan 3, 2013 at 12:32 | answer | added | Dohn Joe | timeline score: 11 | |
| Jan 3, 2013 at 12:20 | history | asked | Wok | CC BY-SA 3.0 |