An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Annotated/Korn

by Friedrich Kluge

Korn, neuter, ‘grain, corn,’ from Middle High German korn, Old High German chorn (genitive chornes), neuter, ‘corn’ (in Middle High German also ‘grape-stone, corn-field, corn-stalk’). Gothic kaúrn, neuter, with the variant kaúrnô, neuter; Old Icelandic korn, Anglo-Saxon and English corn, Dutch koren; common Teutonic stem korna-, meaning ‘single grain,’ then also ‘stone' and ‘fruit.’ For the meaning ‘stone’ compare Old High German bęrikorn, Middle High German wîn-, trûben-korn, ‘stone of a berry'; Old High German korn- and kërnapful (Anglo-Saxon cornœppel), ‘malum punicum, calville,’ are interchangeable; for the derivative Anglo-Saxon cyrnel, English kernel, see under Kern. Thus it is probable that there exists a close connection between Kern and Korn, their phonetic relation being similar to that between Brett and Bord; for further examples of gradation in nouns, see under Korb. Another graded form of Korn, from pre-Teutonic gṛnó-m, is furnished by Latin grânum, ‘grain, core’; see Hürde, equivalent to Latin crates; voll, equivalent to Latin plênus, Old Irish lán. Gṛnó is exactly the same as Old Slovenian zrŭno, neuter, ‘grain.’