Where does “popcorn” come from?
Popcorn is a compound of English pop and corn, where corn comes from Middle English corn, Old French corne, Latin cornu meaning horn, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European ǵerh₂-.
popcorn (English): A snack food made from corn/maize kernels popped...
Definitions
- A snack food made from corn/maize kernels popped...
Ancestry of “popcorn”, step by step
popcorn traces back through two separate lines of ancestry.
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 |
via English popped
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | English | popped | simple past tense and past participle of pop |