corn [OE] Corn, meaning ‘grain, the seed of wheat and similar plants’, is an Old English word whose root may date back as far as farming itself and which could be used for anything granular, even hail. The modern sense of corny is a development of an earlier sense, dating from the 1930s, that described something, especially music, of a simple and unsophisticated type that appealed to people living in the country. Kernel [OE] is based on corn and was originally a ‘little corn or seed’. The other kind of corn [LME], the small area of thickened horn-like skin on your foot, comes from Latin cornu ‘horn’. Cornu, which could also mean ‘tip’ or ‘corner’, is the source too of corner [ME]—you can think of a corner as the part of something that sticks out or forms the tip.

The trumpet-like cornet [LME] is now made from brass, but it was originally a wind instrument made out of a horn, and Latin cornu is again the source. The early 20th century ice-cream cornet gets its name because it resembles that of the instrument. One brand of ice cream is called a Cornetto (‘little horn’), and this Italian word was also the name of an old musical instrument, a straight or curved wooden wind instrument with finger holes and a cup-shaped mouthpiece. See also horn.