The Romans ate corn · ↗ grammarphobia.com

Some time ago, I was working my way through Harry Sidebottom’s Warrior of Rome series, set during the Crisis of the Third Century. In one of the novels, I came across a reference to the main character eating corn—odd, since of course corn is a New World crop and wouldn’t reach the Old World for another twelve centuries.

It turns out corn is a much older term than what I am used to calling corn (maize). This Grammarphobia post covers it pretty well, leaning heavily on the Oxford English Dictionary. Originally, “corn” referred to any small hard particle or seed; by the 800s it referred specifically to grains. After the Columbian exchange, Europeans began referring to maize as “Indian corn” and by the 1600s, just “corn”.

The use of the term “corn” to refer to grain persists in British English, usually to refer to the predominant grain of the region (wheat in most of England, oats in northern Britain and Ireland). Consider the Corn Laws of the first half of the 19^th century or the Canada Corn Act of 1843 (which the Wikipedia page helpfully clarifies refers to grains).

Upon reflection, I think I must have come across this older usage of the term “corn” before, but obviously it didn’t stick until it pulled me out of my Roman adventure story.