Middle English, going back to Old English, "grain of a cereal grass, seed, berry," going back to Germanic *kurno- (whence also Old Frisian, Old Saxon, Old High German & Old Norse korn "grain of a cereal grass, seed," Gothic kaurn), going back to European Indo-European *ǵr̥H-no-, whence also Latin grānum "seed, especially of a cereal grass," Old Irish grán, Welsh grawn, Old Church Slavic zrĭno "grain, seed," Serbian & Croatian zȑno, Russian zernó, Lithuanian žìrnis "pea"
Note: The noun *ǵr̥H-no is sometimes taken to be a zero-grade derivative of Indo-European *ǵerh2- "become old, ripen" (see geriatric entry 1), but this has been disputed.
Middle English corne, probably borrowed from Medieval Latin cornū "horn, horny excrescence," going back to Latin, "horn" — more at horn
Note: Late Old English corn in this sense, attested in the medical text Lacnunga, a collection of remedies, charms and prayers, may be from Latin or an extended sense of Old English corncorn entry 1.
First Known Use
Noun (1)
before the 12th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1