Confederacy of a Dunce - British and American corn

Thursday, January 19, 2006

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It's time for another language digression, and this time the topic is corn. Of course the topic is corn, I am a Hoosier after all (OED: Hoosier: a. a native or inhabitant of the state of Indiana. b. An inexperienced, awkward, or unsophisticated person.). It's always struck me as odd that not only do British pizzas often come with sweetcorn as a topping, but also that they call it "sweetcorn" in the first place. We Hoosiers would just call it "corn", and we sure know about corn¹. As it turns out, this is one of those sneaky linguistic differences that easily passes under the radar. In American English (see dictionary.com), "corn" refers specifically to a plant known as Zea mays, and the grains or kernels thereof. And also an ear of the same. This plant, in British English, goes by "maize", because UK "corn" is fairly synonymous with US "grain": a more general term referring to any type of cereal (OED: wheat, rye, barley, oats, maize, rice, etc.), and often simply refers to the main crop of a particular area. UK "sweetcorn" is the edible part of maize, I suppose (to be honest, I haven't ever noticed British speakers using the term "maize", but sometimes I suppress my Hoosier heritage by limiting my conversations about grain and cereals). Apparently (i.e., according to the OED), US usage of "corn" is a shortened form of the original (British) reference to maize as "Indian corn" (i.e., that cereal grown by the Indians). I guess the "Indian" part was dropped when the Indians "decided" to move west to land where cultivating crops was more of a challenge. Anyway, if you're a Hoosier in the UK looking for a cornfield, don't be surprised if it doesn't have any corn in it.

¹For example, the custom of "corning houses" at Halloween. Feral youths go into cornfields and collect loads of corn kernels (quite dry at this time of year, as they've been left to go to seed, or to be fed to pigs, or something. Erm, you can see I'm only loosely acquainted with agricultural practice). When thrown at houses, the kernels make a rattling noise, just like, ummm, there's corn being thrown at your house. It's really fun and a great alternative to driving up and down the main drag. Never mind the much-reviled slogan for a rather low-rent amusement park, "There's more than corn in Indiana" (proper retort: "There's soybeans too").

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Thursday, January 19, 2006 1:55:00 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)