From: CurtAdams@aol.com
Date: Wed Nov 01 2000 - 15:27:05 MST
Michael Wiik asked:
>
>I'm no agricultural history expert, but weren't there corn riots in
>ancient Rome?
>
Old meaning of "corn", which refers the the primary grain of a society,
whatever
it is (wheat, rye, barley, etc.) In American English (Brits too?) the the
term came
to refer to the Amerindian corn, which is more precisely termed maize. I have
no idea why the term switched; maybe because long-distance food transportation
made the original concept unclear for any given society.
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