What is the etymology of "cornhole"?

Question

Since being introduced to the bean bag-toss game of the same name, I've wondered about this word. The old farm game, similar to horseshoes, has recently gained such popularity that Googling cornhole is now anodyne. Aficionados are unapologetic about the game's name, but given the word's unsavory history, introducing the game to the unfamiliar can still be sheepish.

Checking Etymonline, I was surprised to find this:

cornhole synonymous with "do anal intercourse" by 1930s, apparently the reference is to a game played in the farming regions of the Ohio Valley in the U.S. from 19c., in which players take turns throwing a small bag full of feed corn at a raised platform with a hole in it.

Does the game's name really predate the word's other meaning(s)? Where did the other meanings (I've seen it used as a noun and a verb) originate? I'm interested in any substantiated clues to the historical development of this Americanism.

Answer 1

In rural America, which was an agrarian society originally, people did not have indoor plumbing and instead used an outhouse. They didn't have toilet paper either, so they had to use whatever was at hand. Corncobs were often used for the purpose. That's how they came to be associated with the rectum.

EDIT: What I said above was related to me by my grandfather, who grew up in a farming community in Illinois in the early 20th century. So it may be folk etymology. Etymonline.com differs somewhat, although I find their explanation bizarre (and note that it is qualified with the word "apparently" — apparently what?

cornhole synonymous with "do anal intercourse" by 1930s, apparently the reference is to a game played in the farming regions of the Ohio Valley in the U.S. from 19c., in which players take turns throwing a small bag full of feed corn at a raised platform with a hole in it.

FURTHER EDIT:

Etymonline offers no explanation for how "anal intercourse" became associated with an innocuous game. Was there a gay culture on the down-low in farming communities, one that staged mock games of what amounts to bean-bag tossing to cover up homosexual orgies? That seems ridiculous.

Answer 2

The Google Books search for "cornhole" between 1900-1965 reveals usage as anal sexing or people's names. The earliest sex reference in their list seems to be 1951 with "Don't let him cornhole you!" Moving the search to 1995-2005 begins revealing references to the game. All other date ranges previous involve anal sex, the anus, someone's name or a literal hole in the ground for corn. (I checked.) Naturally, this doesn't mean much about its out-of-book uses but it does give some metric.

Alternative sources include the American Cornhole Association with an unconvincing:

It has been said that the game originated in Germany in the 14th century, and then was rediscovered in the hills of Kentucky over 100 years ago.

And an article in (the Cincinnati?) Enquirer and the Corn Hole Game Association which essentially agree that history is contested and no date is available.

The game itself has probably been around as long as it was feasible to put corn or other seed into a sack and toss it at something. While the name cornhole would probably have been independently coined all over the place, its universal acceptance as a name of the game doesn't appear much earlier than the 2000s. There are often tales of people using the name earlier but apparently none of them ever decided to publish a book.

Given its other usage having already been published in various forms it seems safe to say the word's primary meaning during the mid-1900s was significantly less innocent than a game played with sacks of corn. Whether anyone was calling the game cornhole then or not, that was mostly likely not the meaning of the word.

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In other news, a 500 reputation bounty may not be enough to sift through pages upon pages of Google book matches relating to anal sex.

Answer 3

On the English wikipedia it mentions Germany but doesn't go deep in that matter. I found out more info on the italian wikipedia. I know it's not the best source around, but maybe it can help you in some way, I'll translate it for you.

It seems that the "Cornhole" comes from Germany, where, in 1325, a furniture maker/seller whose name was Mathias Kuepermann (Küpermann I suppose), when observing kids that where playing throwing stones into an hole, invented a less dangerous system to have fun. Looking around and seeing the large quantity of corn that was available in "his Bavaria", he decided that the new stones would be bags filled with corn weighing one pound. After some time in which it disappeared, the Cornhole game appeared again in America, in Cincinnati exactly, where, in the meantime, some immigrants from Germany had arrived.

If there are mistakes, let me know, I tried to translate it the best way I can.

Answer 4

Corn became associated with the rectum due to the fact that corn is not easily digestible, and consequently shows up regularly in the stool. The hole whence such undigested corn emanates thus became known as the cornhole, and the verb to cornhole referring to anal sex was a natural extension. I'm asserting this is the correct etymology based on widely available anecdotal evidence, relatively frequent mention in comedy, and Occam's razor.

Answer 5

This game was originally played in Germany round about the 14th century. A version of it is also played by the Blackhawk Indians in Illinois. It then recently gained popularity in the past century, and come to be known by its present name. One thing is certain however, the name 'cornhole' was not used when the game was first invented. It was only used when this game was 'rediscovered' in America recently. When playing the game, there are phrases peculiar to the game that are called out(i.e. in Australian Football, a mark is a catch, and a screamer is a catch of someone's back), and 'cornhole' in this game was called out when the bag of corn landed in the hole(obviously). That is the origin of the name of the game.

http://www.cornholecornhole.com/the-secret-history-of-cornhole

http://www.playcornhole.org/whatis.shtml

http://www.cornholeoutlet.com/WhatisCornhole

For a link to the Blackhawks idea, it's http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornhole#History

and http://www.cornboard.co.uk/history/

As to the word's other meanings, I'd rather not mention them.