Farming in Dark Age Britain

Suite 101 ^ | 3-18-2011 | Brenda Lewis

[SunkenCiv]

GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother & Ernest_at_the_Beach	join list or digest view topics view or post blog bookmark post a topic subscribe
Thanks Renfield. Celtic roads topic? To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list.

[LadyDoc]

corn refers to any grain crop. Americans call maize “corn” but the word in other countries is still used the older way.

[FrdmLvr]

Europeans had tomatoes long before they settled in the new world, however, they were thought to be poisonous. Did they learn from the explorers to the new world that they were not poisonous?

[Squawk 8888]

In Britain, “corn” is a generic term meaning any cereal grain. “Maize” is their word for what whe call corn.

[ThanhPhero]

“Corn” in England is wheat or grain in general.The word came to ne applied to Amerìcan maize because it was the American grain, the American “corn.” Maize in England is the specific grain that Americans call corn.

[MD Expat in PA]

You and others are correct. And FWIW, Robert Burns penned the poem John Barleycorn but the poem and folksong actually long predates Burns.

"John Barleycorn" is an English folksong. The character of John Barleycorn in the song is a personification of the important cereal crop barley and of the alcoholic beverages made from it, beer and whisky. In the song, John Barleycorn is represented as suffering attacks, death and indignities that correspond to the various stages of barley cultivation, such as reaping and malting.”

“Corn” in the English language of our ancestors refers to the actual grain, the kernel part of the plant, i.e. the “corn” of the barley plant, hence the "barleycorn". When the early Americans from England saw the native Indians cultivating Maize and grinding its dried kernels to make a type of unleavened flat bread, they said, “Oh that must be “corn” and the name stuck. Here in America when we go to the produce stand and buy “corn” we are actually buying at type of Maize.

Traffic - John Barleycorn (Must Die)

[Bigg Red]

Very interesting. Thanks for posting.

(It’s a shame, though, that the writer did not proofread.)