Where does “cornmeal” come from?
Cornmeal derives from English corn and English meal, with meal tracing through English mole, English moll, English Moll, and English Mary back to Latin cornu and Proto-Indo-European ǵerh₂- and mel-.
cornmeal (English): Dried corn milled to a coarse meal
Definitions
- Dried corn milled to a coarse meal
Ancestry of “cornmeal”, step by step
cornmeal traces back through two separate lines of ancestry.
via English meal
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | English | meal | Food that is prepared and eaten, usually at a... |
| 2 | English | molé | Alternative spelling of mole |
| 3 | English | Moll | A pet name for Mary |
| 4 | English | mary | A male homosexual |
| 5 | French | marie | first-person singular present indicative of... |
| 6 | Old French | Marie | — |
| 7 | Latin | Marīa | Mary mother of Jesus |
| 8 | Ancient Greek | Μαρία | Mary, Maria |
| 9 | Hebrew | מִרְיָם | — |
| 10 | Aramaic | מרים | bitter |
| 11 | Biblical Hebrew | מִרְיָם | — |
via English corn
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | English | corn | The main cereal plant grown for its grain in a... |
| 2 | Middle English | corn | Any plant that bears grain, especially wheat; a... |
| 3 | Old English | corn | corn, a grain or seed; a cornlike pimple, a corn... |
| 4 | Proto-West Germanic | korn | corn, grain, cereal |
| 5 | Proto-Germanic | kurną | corn, grain, cereal |
| 6 | Proto-Indo-European | ǵr̥h₂nóm | grain |
| 7 | Proto-Indo-European | ǵr̥h₂nós | matured, grown old |
| 8 | Proto-Indo-European | ǵerh₂- | to grow old, to mature |